Too much cricket not good for the game
On November 19, India and Australia featured in one of the biggest matches the sport has to offer—the 50-over World Cup final. Roughly 100 hours later, the two teams began a five-match T20 series, with the last encounter taking place in Bengaluru on Sunday. Out of the 22 players who featured in the final in Ahmedabad on November 19, there were only three holdovers in Bengaluru two Sundays later (Travis Head, Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer).
The last of those, Shreyas, was given a small break before he was asked to report for this series. In other words, there is just way too much cricket. There is always an appetite for live cricket—especially when it is between two elite nations playing in India—but it is increasingly coming at a cost to the players. The broadcasters are sure of making money, but do we want to repeatedly flog our cricketers like this
Ultimately, the health of the product will suffer. Mitchell Marsh, who played in that World Cup final before opting to skip the T20 series, called the schedule “outrageous”.
“The boys have just won a World Cup and probably deserve to celebrate... you would hope there’s not too many of those series put on after big tournaments again.”
Unless the players themselves protest, the cricket boards and broadcasters will keep signing up for these kinds of low-stakes, money-spinning series because of the finances. Days after England’s T20 World Cup win last year, the two teams played out a 50-over bilateral series in Australia in front of largely empty stands. Before the first game of that series, England skipper Jos Buttler had no problems admitting his team may be undercooked.
Several Australian players who had initially signed on to stay for this series against India either withdrew or left midway. David Warner headed home before playing a single game. Others flew back after a couple of matches with Pat Cummins saying the players were “not robots”. This is not a good look.
The International Cricket Council and national cricket boards should seriously look into this. There should be a gap of at least 10 days after all major events. Is there an appetite to pass a rule like this? The sport’s lawmakers have to decide. Otherwise, they are in danger of seeing the product eating itself alive.