No moaning about tiredness - Collingwood

	Paul Collingwood: 'We are pretty much used to the schedules we have got, and we've had busier schedules in the past' © Getty Images

Paul Collingwood believes the England players can cope with the packed schedule they face over the next 14 months after a three-week IPL window was agreed.

The players who are now in line for a lucrative franchise contract in India and take part in all forms of the game - including Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad - face the prospect of having virtually no break for more than a year-and-a-half. In that period there is the current tour of West Indies, an Ashes series, a full tour of South Africa and a host of one-day tournaments.

Even the one-day players who take up IPL deals, such as Samit Patel, face a hectic time with numerous international tournaments also in the calendar including this year's World Twenty20, the delayed Champions Trophy, and another Twenty20 in West Indies next year.

"I guess you cannot moan about being tired later because if you take an offer up, you know what the ramifications are," admitted Collingwood as England began their preparations for the Test series against West Indies. "But we are pretty much used to the schedules we have got, and we've had busier schedules in the past.

"If players go over there and earn a few bucks it will make them a lot happier," he added. "The downside is that it is time being away from home but the actual cricket, being the Twenty20 format of the game, is not going to tire you out too much.

"The practice and preparation is not like going into Test match cricket, it is not mentally draining you, obviously they are high-pressure games but only for three hours."

While the long-term impacts of endless cricket remain to be seen the warning signs are there from a number of Australian players, notably Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds, who struggled after their IPL stints last year. However, the first issue facing England's Test players will be a lack of first-class cricket before the first Test against West Indies, at Lord's, on May 6.

The three-week window means they will miss the round of Championship matches before the opening Test, leaving them with just net practice to switch their focus from the white to the red ball.

"What we will be doing, if we do go over there [to India], is play against the best players in the world because everybody is over there," Collingwood said. "That's important because in April, in England, sometimes you don't get any practice, and this way you are guaranteed hitting lots of balls and working on things against the best.

"There are obviously two sides to the argument but recently we have shown that practice games aren't 100% essential."