Are the major nations playing too much cricket?

[centurymaker]

What do you guys think?

Alastair Cook has warned that England's players could go on a strike if the country's Board does not trim the schedule as the team is playing "too much cricket".

Cook, who is widely tipped to take over as ODI captain if Andrew Strauss decides to quit the post, said the players are competing in far too many games and risk burnout.

"I feel sorry for the lads. I've been pretty much the only one who's been able to play and to enjoy the experience of winning because of the schedule," the 28-year-old told 'The Daily Mail'.

"It has to change before it all becomes meaningless. As players we don't have much power. We keep on saying that we play too much cricket. I've been saying this since I was 18 and I'm now 26, but we cram more and more games in.

"We can go on strike, which is not recommended, but at some stage it will have to change," he warned.

England's players were on the road for close to five months before the World Cup and ended up losing some key players such as Stuart Broad and Kevin Pietersen to injury during the mega-event.

Their campaign saw many ups and downs and finally came to an end in the quarterfinals.

I personally agree strongly with Cook here. It feels like the number of games, played by the major teams, in all formats have been going up for the last few years, particularly tests and t20s.
If you do believe that the teams are playing far too much, then what measures should the administrators take? If it is not financially feasible to do this or whatever excuses the admistrators have, should the selectors then pick largely different players for different formats to address the issue of player burn-out?
We are seeing more fast bowlers deciding against playing the longer format or getting injured more frequently , so it's detracting from the quality of test matches. If this trend continues, we could be in for a greater number of run-fests in the future unless they make the pitches less in favour of bastmen (unlikely).
We saw Broad, Finn, Bollinger and co break down/sustain injuries in the Ashes last year so should major (top 4) teams be playing fewer tests?
I'd personally take quality over quantity anyday. I'd perfer 8 top quality tests a year over 12 tests at something like 75% quality (due to player burn-out, injuries, players not particularly motivated to play etc).

Thoughts?

 

[Spark]

I would seriously doubt Broad and Bollinger's first injuries (the latter of which came before the Ashes) had anything to do with an overloaded schedule. I sort of agree but I think this is more an England-centric problem. Currently we're on a three or four month break.

There's also the fact that this is a WC year so obviously that's going to play havoc with some schedules.

Reduce JAMODIS, that's about all I can think of. Test series are too short as they are, too many 2-match series and not enough 5-match series.

 

[silentstriker]

D, not enough?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

England players are nearly always on the go with a 6 week break the best they ever seem to get. What our guys would give for the 4 months the Aussies are having off now.

 

[Howe_zat]

With Spark on this one. The international schedules are only really crammed for England and India right now, mostly due to when the domestic season is, especially the IPL.

The FTP as it is really needs to be scrapped. Touring as much as possible only to play no FC cricket, two or three Tests and a load of JAMOS is as many countries as possible is not helping anyone.

 

[vcs]

Would advocate a shorter IPL window. I think teams should rotate their squad in a big way in these less important ODI series. Australia and India have built up a pretty deep ODI squad by doing that in recent times, and their key players haven't burnt themselves out because there are a few "Test/ODI only specialists" who play in only one of the formats. England have a relatively shallow ODI squad which cost them in the WC.

 

[Spark]

With Spark on this one. The international schedules are only really crammed for England and India right now, mostly due to when the domestic season is, especially the IPL.

The FTP as it is really needs to be scrapped. Touring as much as possible only to play no FC cricket, two or three Tests and a load of JAMOS is as many countries as possible is not helping anyone.

IIRC the new FTP hasn't come out yet. At least when I checked it on cricinfo I don't recall seeing anything beyond this year or next year.

Shorter IPL window - yep.

Basically, more Tests. Not more Test series, but more Tests.

 

[Furball]

England players are nearly always on the go with a 6 week break the best they ever seem to get. What our guys would give for the 4 months the Aussies are having off now.

Aside from a return 5 match ODI series in October, England have nothing scheduled between the end of the home ODI series vs India and the "away" tour of Pakistan in January.

 

[vcs]

Also, unrelated to the topic, but found it odd that the article says Cook is "widely tipped" to take over as ODI captain if Strauss quits or retires from ODIs.

 

[centurymaker]

D, not enough?

Imagine a SA v Aus/Eng series without steyn and/or anderson?
How lame would that be? I'm very concerned about the fitness of fast-bowlers.

I would seriously doubt Broad and Bollinger's first injuries (the latter of which came before the Ashes) had anything to do with an overloaded schedule. I sort of agree but I think this is more an England-centric problem. Currently we're on a three or four month break.

There's also the fact that this is a WC year so obviously that's going to play havoc with some schedules.

Reduce JAMODIS, that's about all I can think of. Test series are too short as they are, too many 2-match series and not enough 5-match series.

I reckon there are fewer ODI series played nowadays. Very few tri-series etc..

IIRC the new FTP hasn't come out yet. At least when I checked it on cricinfo I don't recall seeing anything beyond this year or next year.

Shorter IPL window - yep.

Basically, more Tests. Not more Test series, but more Tests.

True,
Instead of 2 X 2 match test series + 2 X 3 match test series , they should have 2 X 4/5 match test series.
There'd also be less travelling because of fewer series'.

 

[weeman27bob]

I'm working this out as I go along, so it probably won't work logisitcally, but here goes anyway.

I'd like to see each country have something like the following arrangement.

"Summer" - Two test series, one of 5 matches, one of 3, with a T20I and 5 ODI games following each one.
"Winter" - Either one 5 match series, or two 3 match series, followed by the same List A formats.

Obviously, if you've got an international tournament goign on, you can reduce it, so say two 3 match series in the summer, to allow extra time for warm up games and the tournament.

Which gives 83/88 days of international cricket a year, presuming everyone plays in all formats.

 

[Howe_zat]

Incidentally, if there's one man in England I'd bet would finally stand up for the maligned proletariat it's Alastair "Che" Cook.

 

[weeman27bob]

Incidentally, if there's one man in England I'd bet would finally stand up for the maligned proletariat it's Alastair "Che" Cook.

Are you trying to suggest that Andrew "Lenin" Strauss isn't the man of the people?

 

[smash84]

I think it is more of an England problem than with other teams. India too I guess.

Pakistan/SL/NZ/SA don't play as much tests as I think they should

 

[marc71178]

We are seeing more and more fast bowlers deciding against playing the longer format, so it's detracting from the quality of test matches.

Slightly exaggerating the situation there methinks. How many are we talking about (and more to the point how many of them are actually retiring due to injury?)

 

[vcs]

I think it is more of an England problem than with other teams. India too I guess.

Pakistan/SL/NZ/SA don't play as much tests as I think they should

Yes. I remember Australia also used to play a lot of cricket in their dominant years (apart from WC years). They had a ridiculously deep squad, and used it very well. And obviously when you are always winning, you don't mind the fatigue so much.

 

[centurymaker]

By major nations I mean Australia, England , India and SA.

 

[silentstriker]

Imagine a SA v Aus/Eng series without steyn and/or anderson?
How lame would that be? I'm very concerned about the fitness of fast-bowlers.

But it's a poll, which means you're trying to get people to share their views - not to reinforce your own views. So you missed one option .

I want more cricket, more Test cricket specifically.

 

[centurymaker]

But it's a poll, which means you're trying to get people to share their views - not to reinforce your own views. So you missed one option .

I want more cricket, more Test cricket specifically.

"Just about right" option is good enough for people with different views.

 

[GotSpin]

- IPL window is way too long
- WTF is the champions league
- Too many limited over series
- Not enough FC and Test cricket
- Less tours, but make them longer

My ideal tour would be

One 2020
Three ODIs
Couple FC matches
3-5 test matches