Player burnout is cricket’s greatest threat

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By David Sygall, 11 Nov 2009 David Sygall is a Roar Rookie

Tagged:: Australia, Cricket, ICC, One day cricket, Test cricket

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West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul, center right, celebrates winning the match with his teammate Ramnaresh Sarwan, center left, beside Australia's Mitchell Johnson, left, during the Group C Twenty20 World Cup cricket match between Australia and the West Indies at The Oval cricket ground in London, Saturday June 6, 2009. AP Photo/Matt Dunham

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 a very exciting – yet, to many, meaningless – series against India thunders along in front of a never-ending supply of Indian cricket fans, reaping the zillions of dollars they generate.

The Australian summer starts in 18 days. The West Indies this time, isn’t it?

‘‘…the sheer disorganisation of cricket’s calendar is now itself fatiguing, and cannot but bring cynicism and contempt in its train,’’ cricket writer Gideon Haigh declared eloquently on cricinfo.com recently.

Haigh’s column argued that burnout is no longer a problem solely afflicting players, it is now wearing down fans and even the media.

Cynicism and contempt? It is growing. But there is another ‘C’ word being bandied about as a key to cricket’s future. Context.

‘‘The answer to the whole problem is to give cricket context,’’ Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations chief executive Tim May said last week.

May, the former Australian spinner-turned players’ advocate, was en route to the meeting of minds in Dubai on Thursday, where a who’s who of cricket royalty gathered to conclude such penetrating insights as ‘‘rebranding the concept of Test cricket’’ and the need for one day cricket ‘‘to remain viable and popular’’.

May is one of the few left in cricket these days who tells it like it is. Not everyone likes him for it, but he couldn’t care less.

May said that, within a context of Test championships and annual one day championships, the players can play less and earn more. Everyone’s happy. Even the fans.

‘‘It really is simple and we have been saying it for a long time – but no one country wants to lose the power of steering its own course and therefore the Future Tour Program is just full of greed and self interest.’’

Here’s some context: in the 10 years that Alan Davidson played international cricket, between 1953 and 1963, he spent about 220 days representing Australia.

Michael Clarke has been playing for just five years, yet has already played eight more Tests than Davidson – as well as 163 one day internationals and 19 Twenty20 matches. The world is very different to Davidson’s day, but the ramifications of the current excess is not in cricket’s interest.

Clarke is at home in Sydney, resting his dodgy back. Others who’s bodies have given out are Brett Lee, Tim Paine, James Hopes, Peter Siddle, Callum Ferguson and Nathan Bracken.

Moises Henriques came and went. Brad Haddin has just started playing again. Good luck for Burt Cockley and Clint McKay.

In April, Australian Cricketers’ Association chief executive Paul Marsh discussed the reality that there was no longer THE Australian cricket team, but AN Australian cricket team.

As of last Friday, 32 people had played one day cricket for Australia in the past 12 months. That’s one short of three full cricket teams.

‘‘The ACA has said for many years that international sport should always be the best against the best,’’ Marsh said.

‘‘Unfortunately, for workload reasons, a high proportion of one-day internationals and Twenty20 games now don’t provide this contest.

‘‘If the volume of cricket played was at a more reasonable level, I don’t think we’d see anything but our best available teams selected.’’

The danger now is that fans are losing sympathy for the players.

Fans can see the irony in the players pushing for less cricket (by the way, Australia’s contracted cricketers just got a pay pool increase of 13.1 per cent each year for the next two years), while nearly all have jumped at the chance to play an extra month and a half each year at the Indian Premier League, which is like winning Lotto.

An ACA survey of state and national players early this year found that less than half believed representing their country would be the ultimate achievement 10 years from now. Chris Gayle said it and everyone was aghast. But Gayle might just be regarded as a pioneer in a few years’ time.

James Sutherland’s right hand man, Peter Young, said recently ‘‘We’re conscious of the impact the workload has on players and the broader impact it has on fans because there’s only so much cricket a fan can consume. It’s an ongoing debate. We’re concerned to get the balance right.’’ Let’s have a meeting.

Certainly, for some fans – wherever they live – too much is never enough.

And, certainly, many in Australia, players and administrators alike, are enjoying the short term financial rewards of an overkill that is now cricket’s equivalent of global warming – it’s no longer a threat, it is actually happening.

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The Crowd Says (12) | Page 1 of Comments

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.

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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??

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- Freud of Football said | November 11th 2009 @ 6:10pm | Report comment
  
  When hell freezes over.
  
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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

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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.
h

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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…….”

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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.

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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

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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…..

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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.

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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……….”

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