English organisation not players dream come true

By Chris O'Keefe

In a week when Kevin Pietersen complained about the workload of international cricketers and an ex-captain calls for Andrew Strauss to have a rest in the middle of an English summer because he looks weary, one has to ask who mapped out the English summer that drives a cricketer to overload?

England will complete their fourth test of the English summer on Tuesday and have yet to play any One Day Cricket or Twenty20 cricket so far. Fear not, the calendar is jam packed with plenty of both, but the wisdom behind the itinerary is distinctly lacking.

For example, England will play seven one day internationals against India at the end of the summer. Why? The nearest one day 'major' tournament is the Champions Trophy, which is exactly 12 months away. What can England learn that couldn't be learned on a winter tour or in the middle of next summer?

That's not to say that ODI's aren't important to England. However, building up to the Champions Trophy is not exactly the biggest priority. Indeed is the Champions Trophy necessarily that important? Surely it is obvious supporters and indeed those involved on the field would rather sustain a challenge for the World Cup as opposed to the Champions Trophy?

In addition to the ODI deluge, the Twenty20 World Cup makes its debut on the world stage in September and England have just two practice efforts, both in the next month against the West Indies. Given the proximity, surely a couple of 20 over games against India would be suffice to warm up?

The key surely lies in the fact that India will attract big gates to ODI's, tried and tested, unlike the shortest form of the game. Money is the priority it seems, and that is a crying shame. The reason is because the fans are cheated of the highest quality cricket by the fact the players are more often nursing themselves through the season for fear of injury without hitting top power.

The irony as well is that the more cricket played, the more anti-climactic the event. Take the Champions Trophy and World Cup, both won by Australia at a canter without any notable drama (besides off the pitch) unless you were an Irish follower and that was a shame because on of cricket's greatest showcases was tarnished by lack of class in some respects.

The same can be said of the Ashes. No Simon Jones, no Vaughan to captain, no Trescothick, still nursing his mental vulnerabilities of a game he cherished playing every day. A limping McGrath, an undercooked Flintoff, an undercooked England, no clean break since before the 2005 Ashes, showing scars of fatigue.

The game and its need to keep the turnstiles rotating is damaging the game. Like Rugby, the spectacle suffers with the increased quantity available to the consumer, the character not giving the drama of a high quality proverbial thespian, but rather a journeyman soap star getting through a day shift and seeing another on the near horizon, hardly world-class!

The game needs to give players time to breathe and the game they do play need purpose, not seven ODI's that could very easily end as a contest by number four and the exercise is defeated and so will the players wills to continue.

Time away from the game is every bit as important to how a Strauss or Trescothick apply themselves at the game itself, an often forgot matter in a world dominated by profit margins.