Players complain tours are crowded enough

Ricky Ponting's team feels current schedules are already over-crowded without the addition of more tour games, according to Paul Marsh, the Australian Cricketers Association chief executive. While ex-players have pointed at insufficient warm-up matches as central to the side's below-par Ashes form, Marsh said the squad would not be complaining about a program that offered only one first-class affair before the opening Test.

"They want to keep the tour games to a minimum," Marsh told The Australian. "Going back over tours during the last few years there's always been only the one lead-up game then they get into it. It comes back to the amount of cricket being played."

However, the paper reported that Ian Chappell, Mark Taylor, Kim Hughes, Geoff Marsh and Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, thought the build-up was insufficient. Steve Waugh and Ian Healy have also said it would have been helpful to play another early match.

Hughes said the current format was a "nightmare" while Chappell said Australia showed "a bit of arrogance" in agreeing to it. "It was a ridiculous program to accept," he said.

Australia faced Leicestershire in a three-day game before the opening Test while rain interrupted the first-class fixture against Worcestershire and forced the cancellation of a one-day match against Scotland. A two-day game against Northamptonshire at the weekend finished in a draw but provided valuable batting practice for the tourists.