h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As those of you living in England with a sporting bent might know, the Premiership football season starts this Saturday.

This fixture on the calendar seems to have taken on momentous importance in both my life and the lives of many people around me. Indeed over June and July, and especially in odd numbered years, the symptoms of football deprivation become so acute that the start of the season is akin to a junkie scoring for the first time in days. The relief minigled with outright joy is almost unbelieveable.

Given this palpable sense of the release of pain and suffering, I'm beginning to wonder if football following should come under the focus of some scientific studies in order to determine the degree of addiction and set up some possible research routes toward cures or symptom relief.

Until that time, I'm going to have both my radio on and TV tuned in for the entire weekend and let the waves of blissful commentary wash over me.

If football is the new opiate of the masses, can cricket be seen as methadone?