By David Sygall
November 11th 2009 @ 10:26am
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Player burnout is cricket’s greatest threat
Discussion over the future of cricket is looking more like the global warming debate everyday. Nearly everyone agrees there’s a problem. Nearly everyone agrees something should be done about it. And everyone has met up to agree to meet up again.
In the meantime, half of Australia’s best eleven cricketers are at home nursing injuries while [...]
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Hansie said | November 11th 2009 @ 12:15pm | Report comment
I agree that there are too many meaningless matches on the calender, and 7 match one-day series are at least two matches too many. That said, I don’t have too much sympathy for the players. They were whinging about excessive workload about 5 years ago, then knocked each other over in the rush to sign for IPL franchises.
Brett McKay said | November 11th 2009 @ 12:18pm | Report comment
Tim May knows it, Paul Marsh knows it, even James Sutherland and Ricky Ponting know it – so when might something be done??
Freud of Football said | November 11th 2009 @ 6:10pm | Report comment
When hell freezes over.
Dave1 said | November 11th 2009 @ 4:05pm | Report comment
None of these injuries were caused by too much play
Tim Paine, Callum Ferguson, Moises Henriques and Brad Haddin
spiro zavos said | November 11th 2009 @ 5:32pm | Report comment
I agree with Tim May about putting the matches into a context. Who played in last season’s home ODI matches against Australia? There is far too much festival cricket with nothing very much on the outcome. It can’t be beyond the wit of the cricket administrators to work out a cricket season with meaningful matches.
Having said that, I don’t think the problem with the cricketers breaking down from too much cricket is actually correct. Alan Davidson might not have played the same number of matches for Australia ass the modern players but he also played full seasons of tough grade cricket in Sydney and Sheffield Shield cricket for NSW.
English county cricketers played far more cricket than modern players do, and they did not break down with many of them playing into their late 30s. Freddie Trueman used to bowl 1000 overs a year in first class cricket and then played in friendlies most weekends in the season. He rarely broke down.
My feeling is that bowlers spend too much time in the gym developing the wrong muscle strengths. Brett Lee’s current elbow injury I reckon was caused by gym work rather than from bowling. Trueman and his confreres got fit for bowling by bowling, and this is what the modern bowlers should do too.
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Dave1 said | November 11th 2009 @ 5:43pm | Report comment
I agree with you Spiro, people are using wicketkeepers breaking fingers and Henriques bowling 16 over in the champions league that there is to much cricket.
Lee’s injury is interesting in that baseball pitchers also suffer from elbow problems
http://www.asmi.org/asmiweb/research/usedarticles/elbow_injuries.htm
“….Biomechanics of Elbow Injuries During Throwing
Elbow injuries in pitchers can be divided into three types, based upon their location within the joint. All three types of elbow injuries are related to the large rotational force – called “torque” – needed to slow down the cocking of the arm and accelerate the forearm, hand, and ball forward. Elbow torque is greatest when the arm is in its maximum cocked position…….”
Greg Russell said | November 12th 2009 @ 12:36pm | Report comment
While I do not disagree with the comments here, I would just like to remind people that beauty (i.e., meaning) is in the eye of the beholder. To Australians it may have looked “meaningless” to have a 7-match ODI series in India, but judging by reports, this series generated a lot of interest in India, not least of all because a positive result (not achieved, as it turned out) would have lifted India to no. 1 in the ODI rankings.
To put it another way, most summers we like to have various international cricket teams visiting Australia for us to watch, whether at the ground or on TV (or on the radio). For example, most of us enjoyed the Indians playing here two summers ago. The flip side is that Australia must return the favor by traveling to other places, even if such trips assume a “meaningless” look to us.
Having said the above, it seems clear that the 7-match ODI series in England was largely unwanted. Further, this was predictable, given that the English people were always going to go gaga over the Ashes tests. Then again, that series has turned out to be hugely beneficial in terms of getting Australia back on track as an ODI team, so in hindsight I’d hesitate to call even that series meaningless.
Dave1 said | November 13th 2009 @ 6:54pm | Report comment
The thing was the 7-match ODI in England were all sold out so the demand was there
David Sygall said | November 14th 2009 @ 8:41am | Report comment
Thanks for the comments. I guess the point of this piece is that, from what I’m hearing and reading, the issue is becoming increasingly less about the players needing a break and more about fans needing a break. This is a pretty huge shift in the discussion over player workload and cricket scheduling.
It’s annoying that players need to take breaks because there is too much playing and travelling for their bodies and minds to handle, but it’s another story all together if more and more fans become jaded and, worse, cynical as those players who used to agitate for a reduction in their workload suddenly sign up for optional extra competitions that fill their pockets and, down the track, reduce their availability to represent Australia….
The other main point is that the people who have the power to do something about this problem are, in my opinion, highly unlikely to do anything about it as long as the money keeps rolling in…..
Dave1 said | November 14th 2009 @ 2:10pm | Report comment
but the money will only roll in if there is demand for the game. if peole are “jaded” the money will stop rolling in and they will have to reduce the games.
So either way peole are goiing to be happy.
Dave1 said | November 14th 2009 @ 4:20pm | Report comment
It looks like people are still happy
http://www.thesportscampus.com/200911132706/news-bytes/indiaaustralia-series-ratings-32-more-than-ipl-2009
“…….India–Australia Series ratings 32% more than IPL 2009
The TV ratings for the recently concluded India-Australia series have dispelled all notions that ODI cricket is on the decline. According to release from Neo Cricket, the channel airing the seres, the ratings from TAM on a CS 4+ audience averaged 5.53 TVRs for 5 ODIs, which is 32% greater than the ratings of IPL 2009. The highest ratings peaked at 20.36 TVRs, which is 55% more than IPL 2009……….”
Cricket news said | November 17th 2009 @ 6:35pm | Report comment
It was a great comeback for Australia which at one stage was losing the series but later they outclass India despite Tendulkar wonderful individual performance.