Strap yourselves in for an unprecedented few months of cricket, with wall to wall, round the clock action that will leave even the most ardent and enthusiastic cricket fan sated. Alternatively, have a good, long look at the calendar and see which ones you want to prioritise because this summer (spring and autumn) is like no other. But is that a good thing? Isn’t the sport in very real danger of killing the golden goose?
Football managers have been complaining about the unreasonable demands on their players for some time, and now it looks like cricket is heading in exactly the same way. Just looking at the international scene for the moment, England have a three test series against the West Indies starting on the 8th March. Their summer kicks off on the 2nd June with a three test series against New Zealand. Three days after the second test concludes, a three match ODI series starts against the Netherlands.
A day after the last ODI, the New Zealand third test starts. After stumps on day five, England have a whole three days to recover before playing the rescheduled test against India. Two days after that concludes they embark on a three T20 series against India followed by three ODI’s against them. Keeping up? We are barely halfway through. By now the South Africans have arrived in town, and two days after the final ODI against India they start on a three game series with the Proteas. Once that is out of the way, there is the small matter of the test series against them. That takes us up until the 12th September. Just enough time to prepare for the forthcoming World T20 Super 12.
Even for the diehard cricket fan that is a lot of cricket. Even though we were starved of attending matches for a while there is a very real danger that that schedule represents overkill. If people are left with too much choice there is the real danger they will end up opting for nothing. Instead of a good number of high-quality matches witnessed by full houses, we could be in store for tired, injured players playing in front of half empty grounds.
Two teams for split purposes
Over recent years the England team has gradually morphed into two, even three specialist ones, for the test, ODI and T20 disciplines and that has helped alleviate the strain on players somewhat. There is just not the strength in depth to have three completely distinct squads however, and with the central contract that just is not practical anyway. Plus there are some players who can, and should play in all three, especially with the aggressive way England want to play.
Before we move onto the domestic scene, there is the small matter of the IPL. That takes place between the 2nd April and the 3rd June. It is hard to be against anyone earning as much money as they can from the game. It is a short career, and though playing as much cricket as people are currently being asked to do will only make that career shorter, people should be able to make hay while the sun is shining (and of course if it doesn’t this summer there could be a lot less cricket being played…).
All this is happening with the recent introduction of yet another not just competition but variation of the game, the Hundred. That tournament was way better received than the majority of people were predicting, and it proved that it did have merit. However, not only does it mean more games played, the fact that players are very likely to be representing two different geographically based teams means that there will be more travel, less down time for rest and recovery between matches.
I never thought I would be complaining about the fact there is too much cricket, and I dearly hope that come November I will be writing about what an incredible summer of cricket we all witnessed. I also hope that does not come at the cost of the fans, the players, or the sport as a whole.
