Burn-outs and lucrative Twenty20 deals

Daniel Vettori’s appearance for the Twenty20 Big Bash in Australia despite a tight international and domestic schedule for New Zealand has led Michael Donaldson to believe there may be an element of hypocricy to the argument over packed schedules. Writing in Stuff.co.nz, Donaldson believes that “modern cricket is a massive pub crawl”.

Soon, it will be the other way around, players will be saying how much they'd like to play as much test cricket possible, as long as Twenty20 doesn't get in the way.

I have a lot of sympathy for the players. In their shoes, I'd do the same thing, and I bet most of us would. Who in their right mind would turn down extravagant sums of money for less work?

But these are the same players who cry foul when their travel and match schedules turn them zombies, carrying their coffins from one airport to the next. It's a burden when the ICC imposes it on them, but if it's in their own time, suddenly nothing is too hard.