Veteran England batter Joe Root has called for a change in the structure of county cricket to make sure that “players are safer” and the output of the games “is of a higher quality”. With The Hundred taking the July-August spot, the T20 Blast and the County Championship have been squeezed into limited days available towards the beginning and end of the cricketing season as well.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) saw that 81% of the men’s players are concerned about the physical strain whereas 62% are worried about the schedule’s impact on mental health as well. About 66% of PCA members feel there’s just too much domestic cricket as well.
“I am extremely passionate about county cricket and it is apparent the schedule needs to change for a host of reasons to see long-lasting benefits for English cricket. County cricket is the breeding ground for some of the best talent in the game and this requires world leading structures to allow players to reach their full potential. This is a benefit for everybody in the game. We’re trying to find a way of getting the standard of first class cricket as close to the international game as we can. There’s a large number of players that don’t think the schedule is conducive to high level performance as it stands right now, we need to find a way of making that gap smaller and the product better,” said Joe Root.
“There’s so much cricket and there’s so much to cover. It’s not always going to be perfect, we know that, but if there’s any way of finding a middle ground and meeting somewhere closer to the middle where the players are safer and the output of the games is of a higher quality, then English cricket will be winning. Having space to recover, prepare and improve your game during the season is crucial and the creation of minimum standards to protect travel windows and player welfare is non-negotiable,” he further added.
Daryl Mitchell, the PCA’s chief operating officer, asked for a “balance” in scheduling to ensure player welfare.
“Back-to-back games have gone up considerably, and only looked at through a commercial lens. We understand that, but there needs to be a balance. There are reports of players who have got off the team bus, driven home and forgotten how they got there, almost on autopilot. We want to pre-empt it before anything disastrous happens. Our chief executive, Rob [Lynch] is worried about getting the call in the early hours of the morning when someone has driven off the M1. That scares us. 76% of players have concerns about safety when travelling. I don’t think it needs to be a massive reduction [in number of games] but we need to create some space,” Daryl Mitchell said.
