Excessive cricket will burn out players: Darren Lehman
Dec 23, 2018 at 2:28 PM
As the Indian Premier League (IPL) appears set to capitalize on recent International Cricket Council (ICC) changes to the schedule through a “mini IPL” in September, former Australian coach Lehman fears this tournament will further restrict time off for his players.
In 2015, the Australian players have spent 280 days on overseas. Under Cricket Australia CA contracts, players are given a six-week break from commitments, which many use to sign lucrative IPL contracts.
The Indian Premier League is tempting players to play the league, but this kind of league will burn players out and distract them from their national team.
“If it keeps going like this, with players playing IPL as well, they are inevitably going to break down,” Lehmann told Australian media on Friday.
“Hopefully, changes will happen at the ICC and then you will see a refined schedule which will be better.”
The lure of money always attracts players to build a new life. But Lehmann said it was “tough conundrum” for national selectors, as they are reluctant to advise players not to take on out of contract commitments.
“If you look at a two-year cycle, all of our players have had to come home at some point,” he said.
He emphasized on Steve Smith injuries and Mitchell Marsh’s hamstring injury which happened during the time of IPL. believes that while players may be primed to perform under match day stresses, it was the constant travel.
Due to the popularity of T20 cricket and IPL almost every country has introduced franchise-based cricket as round the year cricket players are losing their interest in the game and injuries have become very common in sports.
“It’s not so much the cricket, it’s the travel to these places. You’re on the road, you have training and all that stuff,” he said.
The ICC is going to introduce two-tier Test cricket which will reduce the pressure on cricketers.