THE sports fans that complain about footballers earning too much are probably the same ones bemoaning the first ever day/night Test match in England, which started yesterday.

As an 80s child, I remember football being about muddy pitches, short shorts, mullets and moustaches.

Cricket coverage on TV was equally fraught with danger - dour commentary, cameras at one end of the ground only (possibly one camera in the entire ground?) and run rates slower than a juggernaut going uphill (Chris Tavare, take a bow).

I'd consider myself a purist - old school - I like cricket played in white clothing and a red ball, all washed down with a healthy glug of weak orange squash in the drinks break.

And if a batsman does call for a drink other than at the scheduled stops, I still find myself huffing under my breath. We play in breezy, cool conditions most of the time, not the moisture-filled oven of Colombo (by that I mean Sri Lanka, as opposed to the craggy detective, that other great 80s memory).

So I think I'm in denial. I don't moan about footballers' salaries. Not because they're not obscenely high, but they are simply earning Monopoly money. We cannot do anything about it (other than moan), so why induce unnecessary stress?

Clearly Paul Pogba isn't worth £90m. Nor should Neymar cost nearly £200m in moving to Paris (do you think he's heard of the Louvre?).

However, on the opening weekend of the Premier League, Arsenal beat Leicester 4-3, Liverpool drew 3-3 at Watford and Man United banged in four against West Ham.

Clearly our local teams are also keen to follow suit, as Falmouth Town and Porthleven drew 3-3 respectively on Wednesday and SWPL Premier title holders Tavistock put 11 past wilting Witheridge.

Entertainment, entertainment, entertainment.

Top TV pundit Gary Neville often complains about the lack of quality defending in our game and he's right. It's shocking. That's why we never make any progress at international level.

But spectators generally watch football in the hope of seeing goals, in the same way that cricket fans want to see fours, sixes and wickets. And show me a rugby fan that prefers a well-struck penalty to a try in the corner and I'll show you a liar.

All entertainment has morphed in the same way.

Try watching a classic 1970s horror such as Straw Dogs or the Omen - painfully slow aren't they? No sign of the non-stop jumps and bumps that is such a feature of today's scary movies.

When I was a lad my brother and me had to watch and wait for ZX Spectrum games to "load". More recently, the inglorious dial-up internet provided an irritating reminder of those early computer days (it even sounded similar).

But ipads and their connections are now ready for action quicker than you can say YouTube.

Consumers have almost everything in an instant these days (ever complained about the Tesco delivery van turning up late?) and their expectation of sporting entertainment is no exception.

So why then, for a Test match that can take five days and still end in a draw, have the authorities decided that a day/night format will have the crowds flocking in?

Well, busy lives mean that not everyone can spare a day or two off work to watch weekday cricket. So perhaps when they've finished their shift, they can pop along to the cricket for an evening pint, before dashing off home to let the cat in and put the dinner in the microwave.

To complement the historic occasion and England's West Indian opponents, the match at Edgbaston has a "beach" area installed behind one of the stands, as well as a rum shack.

Rosé, pink champagne and pink cocktails will be sold as a tip to the use of a pink ball, rather than a traditional red one. Sexy.

But let's face it, the changes are hardly earth-shattering. They are designed to broaden appeal and bring some colour and fun to what is sometimes seen as a stuffy, pedestrian game.

They are not the only ones. The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the governing body of golf, is implementing new rules to speed up play and make the game more user-friendly.

Cricket and golf will always be inherently slow, methodical sports - that is part of their infuriating charm - but in general sport, like life, is getting faster and faster.