Crowded international program will spell curtains for Oz squad: Players' union chief

Melbourne, Nov.5 : The crowded international cricket program is unsustainable, the chief of the players' union, Paul Marsh, has said, adding that the injuries hitting the national squad at present, could affect team composition and performance in both the short and long term.

''''If you ever needed evidence of the impact of such an enormous workload, we''re seeing it now,'''' The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Marsh, as saying on Wednesday.

Australia''s program is particularly gruelling this year because the Champions Trophy and a limited-overs tour of Pakistan were deferred until 2009 for security reasons. It means Australia will have played a record 40 ODIs in the calendar year, as well as 13 Tests and a World Twenty20 championship.

Marsh said the national teams'' performances would suffer unless there was a substantial reduction in the amount of cricket.

''''We haven''t seen the final copy [of the new Future Tours Program] but we have seen drafts along the way and our views are that it doesn''t solve the majority of the programming issues. From my discussions with Cricket Australia, I think they are looking at issues like workload and context really seriously, and that''s positive, but at the moment the new FTP doesn''t reflect that,'''' said Marsh

''''We haven''t given up hope that they will look at context and the amount of cricket. It [the Australian injury crisis] is just a lesson once again that international cricketers cannot sustain this level of workload. Going forward, hopefully that is something everyone will have learnt the hard way,'''' he added.

--ANI