Are Australia's players over-worked and under-paid?

Player workload is becoming a big issue in Australia and the Daily Telegraph’s Iain Payten uses Ricky Ponting as a case study.

If Ponting glances at his calendar today, he'll struggle to find a spare weekend for a barbecue. For about a year. A backlog of postponed tours and tournaments will see Australia's cricket team embark on arguably their busiest year on record in 2009. Ponting's Test, one-day and Twenty20 sides will play up to 140 days of cricket across six countries and be on the road for a whopping 318 days in a gruelling itinerary ...

Players are currently negotiating with Cricket Australia to cut back off-field commitments for more free time. On the face of it - in 2009 at least - the players have a decent argument. An average worker works about 230 days a year, with weekends, annual leave and public holidays off.