Moody worried about player burnout

Tom Moody may have recently retired from international coaching but he has had an excellent view of international cricket as coach of Sri Lanka, and he's also part of the ICC's cricket committee. So when he suggests that the international calendar is far too crammed because of the greed of some international boards, everyone should listen.

Moody has suggested that the scheduling of extra ODIs on the sub-continent is a particular problem. "There seems to be more add-on tournaments than there is on the set out and structured fixture list that the Australians and England and some other countries tend to have," Moody was quoted as saying in 'The Australian'.

"It's finding the balance of the financial gain the cricket boards can have against harming the game and the players along the way. Looking at the Australian fixtures in 2008, Australia play something like 22 Tests in little more than a year, and that's at least seven too many.

"If we're trying to look after the game and get our best cricketers on the park full-time and give the public the best standard of cricket with the best players on display, you're not going to do it trying to play 22 Tests in a year and throwing in more than 30 one-dayers as well as Twenty20 matches.

Moody went on to suggest that the result of all the money-grabbing by the various boards could be that each country has two different international sides - one for Tests and another for ODIs. "If they're going to continue down that track there must be serious thought given to a full one-day set-up and Test set-up with two teams and two coaches. If that's what they (cricket boards) want. If the demand is there for more cricket, maybe the price for that is that you're not going to see a Ricky Ponting or an Adam Gilchrist in both forms of the game. Players would be designated to one form of the game and countries build a team for the other format."

Given Moody's concerns, it was interesting to read an article vehermently attacking the BCCI for their sole aim being financial reward. You can see the article at Business Standard.

The sad thing is that Moody seems resigned to the fact that all these games will be played and is offering a possible solution to the problem by having 2 teams for each country. It is worrying that he's doing that rather than trying to add pressure to the boards who think only in terms of money - perhaps in his time with Sri Lanka he has already decided that is a fight that won't ever be won.