Whatever happens, do not, under any circumstances, come hell, high water or anything else, mention the war.
"Focus now shifts to the shorter format, with the T20 Challenge scheduled to begin next Friday, November 10," at least four Cricket SA (CSA) press releases have read, more or less, in the past six days.
Is this a plot to con us by rote?
"Please be advised," another effort intoned, "that the changes to the franchise fixtures for the 2017/18 season has meant that changes have had to be made to the CSA provincial fixture lists as well."
But a train smash is a train smash is a train smash, however much you ignore its shuddering impact and keep calm and carry on.The bulletproof truth is that the T20 Challenge is desperate damage control for the failed inaugural edition of the T20 Global League.
CSA told us on October 10 that they had postponed the latter because it was going to run at a loss of $25-million. They also said they would investigate. More than three weeks on, they've volunteered precious little else on the issue.
What does this mean for cricket-minded South Africans, besides giving them still another reason to think the suits are dangerously negligent at best?
That they won't be able to watch, in the flesh at a ground near them, fading stars like Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen, Lasith Malinga and Brendon McCullum inflate their bank balances in the pretend cause of teams that don't barely exist.
Plan B is that they will be able to watch, in the flesh at a ground near them, playing for a team that has existed since the start of the franchise era 13 years ago, something as relevant as Dale Steyn's return from a year on the sidelines with a calamitous shoulder injury.And to see how seriously Vernon Philander, who has recovered from a back problem and has been playing first-class matches, which are not on TV and therefore out of mind, has taken Graeme Smith's blunt admonition in England this winter that he needs to lose the junk in his trunk.
Yes, Steyn and Philander would have played in the T20 Global League. But now they won't have ballies like Gayle and Pietersen getting in their way.
The prospect of seeing Steyn steam in for the Titans in their opener against the Lions next Sunday is easily worth taking the Gautrain for those within striking distance of Centurion.
There are, then, reasons to look forward to plan B that don't require the suspension of disbelief.
But, at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth, where the Warriors will be up against the Knights next Friday, there is a disappointment for what might have been.
"The T20GL was well-positioned in terms of the quality of the competition," said Mark Williams, chief executive of the Eastern Province Cricket Board and the Warriors...