Neville Cardus, regarded by many as the doyen of cricket writers, once wrote: “It is more than a game, this cricket. It somehow holds the mirror up to English nature.”

No less a figure than ex Prime Minister John Major used the Cardus quote as the title for a book he wrote on the history of our summer game, such was the Manchester Guardian man’s legacy to English culture.

If Cardus were still alive today, he would surely wince at his prescience all those years ago, and shudder at the reflection in the mirror in 2011.

If the Manchester sage was right and cricket reflects the nature of society, then England has become cash-obsessed, over-reliant on instant gratification and a triumph of garish style over substance. Simon Cowell, take a bow.

Cardus would not recognise the summer game today, with the overkill of Twenty20 and the astonishing instant riches available in the Indian Premier League (one batsman, Hampshire’s Michael Lumb, was paid £49,000 for a two-ball duck for Deccan Chargers)

He would be baffled by the never-ending treadmill of international cricket, the sellout by the English Cricket Board to satellite television, the mercenary activities of South Africans like Kevin Pietersen flying under flags of convenience to play for England, and so much more.

Cardus might still identify with the cream teas at New Road, Worcester, or the old pavilion at Trent Bridge. But not much else.

Just like the banking crisis which almost drowned the nation in debt in October 2008, cricket, with a few notable exceptions, is caught up in an ever-swirling whirlpool of indebtedness to prop up an unbalanced business model.

In the same way that the UK for too long relied on financial services to support the economy, cricket is top heavy on Test Matches to pay the bills. Only three of England’s 18 first-class counties managed to make a profit last year. The domestic game churns out match after match in a desperate attempt to maximise revenue, alienating spectators and exhausting players.

Over at Edgbaston, Warwickshire are committed to a £32 million development, the biggest programme of improvement in the ground’s history, to ensure Test Matches return to the famous old arena.

With new kids on the Test Match block like Durham, Glamorgan and Hampshire, too many counties are chasing too few games.

It’s hard not to conclude that Cardus’s mirror is cracking under the strain. It would be a tragedy for the most civilised game of all if it shattered into pieces.