The burning issue of player burnout

It has been a burning issue for some time now, and it was therefore surprising that it took so long for the International Cricket Council (ICC) to convene a meeting of captains to consider the enormous amount of cricket being played. But the outcome of the meeting - an ICC announcement rejecting the captains' plea to reduce the number of matches and stating that the current number was "manageable" - was something of a dampener.

The effects of continuous cricket have not gone unnoticed. Several of them have either retired from one form or other of the international game in recent years citing fatigue, or withdrawn from tours for personal reasons. South Africa's Jonty Rhodes retired from Test cricket last year, saying that he would like to keep himself fresh for the 2003 World Cup.

Over the last two decades, ever since the limited-overs game caught the fancy of the global public, administrators have been keen to cash in on the craze, and the players have just had to fall in line. More and more tournaments at more and more venues became the order of the day, all in the name of globalisation. Not too long ago, one could not have imagined the game being played at Toronto, Morocco, Hong Kong and Nairobi. But by 2000, it was not uncommon for a country to play 10 or 12 Tests and around 40 one-day internationals in a calendar year.

Too much of anything can lead to falling standards, general disinterest and fitness problems, and at the start of the new millennium, it was obvious that player burnout was becoming a major issue. Little wonder then that, after the meeting of the Test captains at Lord's on Monday, New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming made it clear that the ICC would have to consider a major shake-up of the calendar to prevent player burnout. Emphasising the fitness aspect, Fleming said that players needed more time to recover after matches. There is hardly any time these days between games for players to tend to injury; one game follows another ­ a weekend double-header is a case in point - and teams sometimes fly straight from one competition to another.

Such a situation is bound to have an adverse impact on a player's physique, however strong he may be. With this in mind, Fleming voiced his concerns about the amount of time between games, touching upon the stress being put on players. "If the volume of cricket is going to remain at this level, a bit more care must be taken with scheduling," Fleming said quite candidly.

Limited-over matches are now the main money-spinners in cricket, which is the chief reason why organisers go overboard in staging such tourneys. But there is a real danger of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, and this point has been brought up often in the recent past. "We appreciate that the marketing side of the game is important and that the volume of cricket is also important, and that by reducing it we reduce the amount of income in the game," said Fleming. "We understand that in professional sport there are going to be sacrifices, but we want the ICC to share our concerns about the amount of cricket being played."

The effects of continuous cricket have not gone unnoticed. Several of them have either retired from one form or other of the international game in recent years citing fatigue, or withdrawn from tours for personal reasons. South Africa's Jonty Rhodes retired from Test cricket last year, saying that he would like to keep himself fresh for the 2003 World Cup. Just a few days ago, star England batsman Graham Thorpe announced his retirement from one-day cricket because he could not continue playing both versions of the game. Indian pace spearhead Javagal Srinath was another who had frequently expressed a desire to be rested from one-day games before he finally announced his retirement from Test cricket last month.

Player burnout is a more riveting issue in Indian cricket than elsewhere. For one thing, it is safe to assume that among all Test nations, India plays the most one-day games. Secondly, fitness standards not being as high as in other countries, Indian players often carry minor injuries into the field of play. A growing incidence of niggling fitness problems has seen a team doctor and a physiotherapist in attendance for the last couple of years, but ultimately there is little doubt that the players would only welcome a less demanding schedule. At the Lord's meeting, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly voiced his concern on the issue. "I did make a point about excessive cricket being played these days," he said.

However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has done well in agreeing that it would be a step in the right direction to reduce the number of matches. BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya minced no words in saying that the current schedule is too tight. "The ICC's strenuous programme is making the situation difficult,"he said in Kolkata on Tuesday. Dalmiya, a former ICC chief himself, was of the view that Indian players were among those severely affected by non-stop travel and play. "The players sometimes don't have 24 hours to rest. They have no time to recoup. But one has to fulfill commitments," he said.

Dalmiya also referred to the team's hectic schedule in the run-up to next year's World Cup in South Africa. India returned from a tour of West Indies early in June and set off for England a fortnight later to play a one-day series and four Tests, ending on September 10. The players will then jet out immediately to reach Colombo for the ICC Champions Trophy, scheduled from September 12 to 29. They then face the West Indies in a home series from October 1 to November 24 before leaving on a tour of New Zealand, scheduled from December 4 to January 14. The team will hold its final World Cup preparations at home before leaving for South Africa on January 31 for the mega-event, to be held from February 8 to March 23.

In a bid to reduce the load on the players, the BCCI recently persuaded the West Indies and New Zealand boards to cut down the number of Tests by two, adding two one-dayers to the original schedule. Besides reducing the number of playing days, the change should also help prepare the team better for the World Cup. Cricketers hardly get a break these days, what with India in particular having gone into overdrive in matches being played virtually round the year. The players have begun to feel the strain, and it is about time the administrators put the fitness problems of the players above monetary gains while drawing up future schedules.