MCC cricket committee calls for fewer ODIs

The MCC's world cricket committee has said that the game's international calendar is far too cluttered, and wants to see less one-day cricket.

"While lucrative for national boards, one-day cricket can be of a higher intensity and involves more travel than Tests," a statement issued on its behalf said. The committee advocated a maximum of three one-day internationals or series, otherwise it said that an "elongated series often result in tired players more susceptible to injury".

"The MCC's observation does not come as a surprise to us," Tim May, the chief executive of the international players' association (FICA) told Cricinfo. "FICA has been communicating such a message to the ICC for the past three years. Unfortunately, the ICC is not being given the power from its members to introduce any effective ceilings regarding the volume of cricket."

The MCC committee's comments come at the end of a week in which even more ODIs have been crammed into the international calendar.

On Friday it was announced that India will take on Pakistan at Glasgow on July 3 and Pakistan will play Scotland at Edinburgh two days earlier. In the week before those matches, India play South Africa in three ODIs at Belfast and those games are preceded by Ireland playing back-to-back ODIs against India and South Africa.

In the second week of July, West Indies, Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland play in a quadrangular one-day tournament, again in Belfast.

In early June the Afro-Asia series takes place in Chennai and Bangalore, a time of year when heavy rain is expected.

The extra series are all outside the ICC's Future Tours Programme and are arranged by the individual boards as money-earners. However, there are increasing signs that the endless schedule of one-day tournaments is leaving broadcasters weary, and there remain doubts whether some of the matches detailed above will attract TV coverage.