Before long, the Channel Nine hype-machine will swing into overdrive, building excitement for the upcoming summer of cricket.

That would be a summer featuring the strife-ridden West Indian team, which at the time of writing will be sending a B-Grade, or possible worse, team to Australia for three Test matches.

Then we get poor old Pakistan, which hasn't won a Test match since 2006. And that's the marquee attraction, in Melbourne and Sydney over Christmas-New Year period.

By any stretch, that is a dud of a summer and we wish Nine and the Cricket Australia marketing department nothing but the very best as they sell their sport in a sporting marketplace that includes the Spring Racing Carnival, Tiger Woods at the Australian Masters, the summer of tennis and even the A-League.

So one-sided will this summer of cricket be that we confidently predict that the biggest cricket-related event this summer will be Richie Benaud's final day in the Channel Nine commentary box.

The great man has indicated that this will be his final summer and if he and Nine were smart, Benaud will pull up stumps on the final day of the SCG Test, the ground in which he has been a venerated figure for more than half a century.

So dull is the forthcoming cricket season that CA has already released the dates for the following summer, when England visits here to try and retain the Ashes. 25 November has already been pencilled in as the opening day of the opening Test at the Gabba.

And in a welcome departure, from the "take it one summer at a time approach" CA chief executive James Sutherland has already bought into the excitement, saying: "I know we have only just finished an Ashes series in England but I also know that the Aussie players - and Australian cricket in general - are already thinking about the Ashes series down under which starts in just over 12 months."

Not a word about the Windies or the Pakistanis. But before too long, he'll need to be out there spruiking what's happening this summer. Just don't believe the hype.