CA admits cricket calander needs trimming

Melbourne, Nov 6 : Taking notice of the mounting injuries to the Australian players on their tour to India, Cricket Australia admitted that the crowded fixture of the national side needs trimming.

NSW Blues' Burt Cockley and Victoria Bushrangers' Andrew McDonald became the latest players to receive a call to join the injury-ravaged Australian squad in India as replacement for Moises Henriques and Peter Siddle, who were sent home.

The visiting Australian squad has been hit by injuries even before the start of the series, with vice-captain Michael Clarke, regular wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, pacer Nathan Bracken all down with injuries.

Five of the Australian players, including strike bowler Brett Lee, wicketkeeper Tim Paine, all-rounder James Hopes, were forced to return home due to injuries in the first four games.

Yesterday, Siddle blamed the tight fixture of the Australian team for the growing injury-list.

Chairman of Cricket Australia Jack Clarke admitted there was a push to reduce the amount of cricket in the next Future Tours Program which takes over when the present arrangement ends after 2012.

''It is not fixed yet as to what's going to happen, that's been one of the hold-ups in releasing the FTP, the ICC events,'' Clarke said.

''The type of events and the regularity is one of the things.

I suspect the game can't support an ICC tournament every year, but the ICC's also got to get money to get countries dividends, and not just the Test-playing countries but the associates and affiliates.

''So hopefully less will be more, and I'd be surprised if there's an ICC event every year, going forward in 2013-2020,'' he asserted.

It is believed that the increasingly irrelevant ICC Champions Trophy seems to be the weakest link and may be scrubbed from the Australian schedule or moved to a four-year rotation, not the current two.

Even the introduction of Twenty20 cricket, including the cash-rich IPL, a biennial World Cup and the Champions League, have put incredible pressures on the cricketers who were already on a crowded schedule.

Australia has played 40 one-day games, 13 Tests and a World Twenty20 Championship this year and the strain has already started showing on the players who are forced to sit down due to injuries on a daily basis.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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