Sutherland hopes to keep busy players fresh

James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, has maintained a commitment to manage the workload of the international players during a hectic schedule, but has asked them to remember the "significant breaks" of previous years. Three postponed tours to Pakistan have been added to an already crammed itinerary and there have been requests for a reduction in off-field commitments to compensate.

The Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) is about to start negotiating with Cricket Australia over its memorandum of understanding, which covers the players' contracts. In the next 18 months there will be little time at home in between tours of South Africa, England, Pakistan and India.

"We will work with the ACA to manage the workload and commitments of players but as to the reasons we are in this situation, there are three tours that have been postponed from earlier dates, which means that players have had significant breaks as well over the last 12 to 18 months," Sutherland said in the Age. "The players have had more of a holiday or a rest in that time than they would have otherwise had."

Sutherland said the upcoming situation was "far from ideal". "We want to be keeping players fresh," he said. "The last thing we want is for players to be carrying injuries or fatigue."

There have been calls from the contract holders to reduce their off-field appearances - they are required to do 22 a year - so they can spend more time with their families when they are in Australia. "It is a huge issue but this is one of the challenges we face," Sutherland said. "We don't have 400 players running around like some football codes so the burden of public exposure is quite high. That is a good thing, a positive thing, because it gives them the opportunity for commercial exposure."