Broad and Hussey admit scheduling concerns
Stuart Broad says the players don't get enough time to train between matches
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By Matt Fortune. |  |
Monday, 14, Sep 2009 04:21
By Will Haine.
Stuart Broad and Michael Hussey have both expressed their concerns at the length of rest periods for international cricketers.
England and Australia fought out the five Test Ashes series and then locked horns almost immediately in a two match Twenty20 series and a seven match one-day series.
The hosts have been poor so far in the 50 over NatWest series and Australia have taken an unassailable 4-0 lead.
England all-rounder Broad feels that such a congested fixture list means that the players have very little time to work on eradicating mistakes.
"The cricket comes so thick and fast that we need to learn from our mistakes very quickly," said the 23-year-old.
"It's very difficult when you have a travel day and one practice day between games, which makes it very difficult to practice certain skills and certain things to do to move your game forward. But it's one of those things we just have to crack on and do."
Australian batsman Hussey also thinks that the amount of rest days between matches is an issue which is in need of addressing.
"I think certainly there are some tired players mentally and physically for this one-day series," he commented.
"I don't think there's too much cricket but it's more the time in-between games, after Test matches and one-day games and tours.
"What I've always pushed with our players' association is that we've got to really manage that time in-between games."
After the NatWest series finishes on September 20th, both teams will then fly out to South Africa for the ICC Champions trophy.
England then face South Africa in two Twenty20 internationals, five one-day matches and four Test matches between November an January.
And with such a backlog of limited overs fixtures coming up, Broad knows that England need to improve and improve quickly.
"It's been quite tough but that's the schedule laid out for us and we need to get on with it and keep playing the cricket," he said.
"There's still a lot of one-day cricket to play, leading to the Champions Trophy and flying in a weeks time.
"We need to improve on one-day cricket as we have a lot of one-day cricket coming up."