Comment: Cricket administrators and players each to blame for sport’s burnout

Players complain they’re overworked. Administrators whinge the calendar is too full. Neither group helps itself and that’s put cricket on a path to destruction, Peter Lalor writes.

Players like Ben Stokes have been forced to choose. Picture: AFP

Cricket and cricketers are locked on a mutually assured path to destruction.

Players are again complaining about being overworked, but use their holiday period to play more cricket.

Administrations complain the calendar is too full but use every available half an hour to expand existing tournaments or create new ones.

There’s simply too much cricket, but while it pays the bills there’s little chance of their being little else.

Greed is the common denominator, terminal velocity threatens, but the whole shrieking shot show somehow manages to stay on the road. The centre holds for now.

On Sunday, Ben Stokes hit a quickfire 27 and managed to hobble through two overs as England lost to India in the last ODI of that series. On Monday he announced his retirement from the format. On Tuesday, before the first ODI against South Africa, he expanded on his reasons.

Ben Stokes acknowledges the crowd as he departs following his dismissal in his final ODI. Picture: Oli Scarff/AFP

“We are not cars,” he told Test Match Special.

“You can‘t just fill us up and we’ll go out there and be ready to be fuelled up again. We had a Test series and then the one-day team had a series going on at the same time – that was a bit silly.

“I just feel like there is too much cricket rammed in for people to play all three formats now. It is a lot harder than it used to be. I look back to when I used to do all three and it didn‘t feel like it was as jam-packed and all that. Obviously you want to play as much cricket as you possibly can but when it is making you feel tired, sore and you’ve got to look towards five or six months down the road for what you’re doing in the here and now it is probably not the best thing.

“The more cricket that is played, the better for the sport, but you want a product that is of the highest quality. You want the best players to be playing as much as you possibly can, all the time, and it isn’t just me or us. You see it all around the world now where teams are having to rest some players in a certain series so they feel like they are getting a break.”

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Ben Stokes says he will focus on Test cricket now. Picture: Oli Scarff/AFP

England has committed to 12 short-format games in the next two weeks and Stokes has had enough.

Stokes also announced his withdrawal from the Hundred, but not the IPL. The Indian tournament is, tellingly, the last thing any player gives up and it is in the process of fencing off two and a half months of the calendar. With IPL franchises buying up teams in South Africa, the UAE and the Caribbean there are concerns it may try to claim more space from the international game.

England’s administration was slow to accept reality regarding the IPL and international cricket. When Kevin Pietersen tried to give up ODIs to extend his career they told him he could not. They’ll be more understanding with Stokes.

Australia came around quickly and the current selection policy aims to make the most of the situation.

George Bailey sees the IPL as an opportunity for players and coaches to be exposed to the best short-form cricket available.

Cricket Australia knows it best not stand between the players and the chance to double their pay. The players get the best of both worlds and the administration gets the best part of the best players without having to compete with the Indian money.

Players like Ben Stokes have been forced to choose. Picture: AFP

Some accuse the players of greed, but administrators act with similar avarice and are possibly worse.

England epitomises the problem. The Test team has played 16 matches in the current World Test Championship period, where India has played 12 and Australia 10.

Its international schedule is so relentless, a second squad was dispatched to play ODIs in the Netherlands in the middle of the Test series against New Zealand.

This is the administration which schedules 126 T20 domestic games as part of its Vitality Blast and the one that has squeezed the Hundred curiosity into its summer.

Former skipper and retired CA director, Mark Taylor, admits this is an alarming situation but doesn’t pretend to know the solution to it.

“I think alarm bells have been ringing for some time, to be brutally honest,” he told Wide World of Sports.

“The issue is where the game is at with three international formats, then all the domestic T20 leagues, headed up by the IPL which is huge.

“Players like Ben Stokes are in high demand, and given they’re very well paid by the T20 competitions, eventually something has to give.

“The unfortunate reality is it’s usually one form of international cricket that has to give.

“The writing is on the wall for a lot of cricketers, given there‘s three forms of international cricket, but then the domestic T20 format has so many options with the different leagues around the world.

“Players have the potential to have four or five employers at any one time, and you’d think the market for freelance players is only going to get greater.”

“I don’t know what the answer is,” he added.

Nobody does.

Originally published as Comment: Cricket administrators and players each to blame for sport’s burnout