Australian defeat 'would be a wake-up call'

Brett Lee feels the strain in Fatullah © Getty Images Enlarge

Paul Marsh, the Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive, added his voice to the debate on player burnout by claiming that Australia's poor performance in the Fatullah Test was down to exhaustion. Australia landed in Bangladesh three days before the match, after flying straight from a three-Test, five-ODI series against South Africa.

"It may take something, like heaven forbid we lost the series, but it may take something like that to actually wake some people up," Marsh said, adding that he believed the ICC and individual boards were putting money ahead of player welfare.

But he said that a slightly longer break between the two series would not have solved anything. "We take a week off and come later. Does that actually fix anything? Come here early and play practice matches, that probably makes the matter worse at the end of the day.

"Something has got to give with the program. They are playing too much and too much travel. The new Future Tours Program which will be released shortly is worse than it currently is. The problem is getting worse not better."

Marsh also raised the concern that the plethora of limited-overs matches could lead to a recurrence of match-fixing.