The England and Wales Cricket Board is facing mounting pressure to overhaul its domestic and international cricket calendar, as leading figures within the game highlight growing concerns around player burnout and unsustainable scheduling.
At the heart of the issue is what ECB Chairman Richard Thompson describes as a congested, demanding season that is leaving players ‘obviously exhausted’. The call for reform comes after a summer filled with back-to-back fixtures, quick turnarounds between formats, and growing discontent from players across both national and domestic squads.
‘Players are exhausted by an unrelenting schedule’
Speaking to BBC Sport, ECB chairman Richard Thompson pulled no punches in assessing the toll of the current cricketing structure on players.
“Cricket arguably does play too much.”
“We’re the only sport to have a World Cup every year, which I personally think is too much.”
He pointed out that players are being stretched thin across formats and events, both internationally and at the domestic level.
“We want the best players playing as much as possible, but you need to find balance, both at a domestic as well as an international level.”
The recent Test series against India, which lasted five full five-day matches from June to August and ended 2–2, took a visible toll.
“I’m not surprised some of the players were obviously exhausted… I can’t ever remember a five-Test series going five days in every Test.”
“This was a one-off in the sense of ensuring the players actually had the ability to get to the end of it. But yes, there were some creaking bodies.”
Domestic cuts under review as player welfare takes priority
Thompson said that scheduling reforms are already being explored as part of a broader shift to protect players and manage workloads.
“We have to look at the schedule. We’re reducing the number of T20 Blast games we’re playing. We’re looking to potentially reduce the amount of Championship cricket.”
“I think there’s a broad understanding, as much from player welfare as anything, that we don’t want to burn players out.”
This concern isn’t just limited to the international stage. Players in the domestic setup are also raising their voices about the grueling nature of the current system.
Keaton Jennings, Lancashire captain, speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, said:
“It’s not ideal. You can’t have eight weeks between a last group-stage game and a final. There’s no other competition in the world that does that. It feels like a massive kick in the teeth.”
Commercial pressure vs player sustainability
Thompson acknowledged that some of the rigidity in scheduling stems from commercial contracts and broadcast deals—particularly the ECB’s current rights cycle, which won’t allow for flexibility until 2028.
“This Hundred investment has come when we’re actually in the middle of a rights path that we can’t change. So we’re only three years away from being able to ensure there is a gap at the beginning and end of that period, so there isn’t a situation where the players are exhausted.”
Despite this, he emphasized the unique pressure faced by cricket’s white-ball players.
“Whether it’s in 50-over format or T20 format, we have a World Cup every year, so we have an exam to sit that does put white-ball players actually under more pressure.”
“Where rugby or football wait every four years, we come each year, so it’s pretty unrelenting for those players. But I’m not at all worried that we’re going into a fallow period, we’ll come through this.”
Grassroots investment and the path forward
While attention is focused on top-tier scheduling, the ECB is also making moves at the grassroots level. According to Thompson, £50 million (approx. US$68 million) from The Hundred’s £520 million (approx. US$707.2 million) private equity windfall is being allocated to community and grassroots development.
“The Hundred windfall is as much to wipe out the debt of the game… £50m will be going to grassroots.”
On why funds aren’t being used to make the talent pathway fully free, Thompson defended the current direction.
“I think in terms of where we’re investing, this is a far better use of our money… the pathway is significantly subsidised wherever we can do that.”
“But this is really the game-changing moment for the game. I believe that cricket is going into a golden era, and for it to be that, you need somewhere for kids to come and play. The [T20] Women’s World Cup next year is going to activate a lot of interest. That’s why it’s so important we can soak that interest up.”
He also doubled down on the ECB’s progress toward inclusivity across race, class, and gender—particularly in light of the 2023 ICEC report.
“We’ve made a huge amount of progress in the last two years to get there, but we’ve still got a long way to go. Inclusivity is a very broad term, it’s not just race… anybody that wants to play cricket can and should be able to play cricket, and that’s the ambition.”
“These centres, these domes, are a way of demonstrating that we’re trying to reach communities we’ve never reached before.”
A sport at a crossroads
As cricket grows commercially and globally, balancing that expansion with the mental and physical sustainability of its players is emerging as the sport’s most urgent challenge. Whether through domestic scheduling cuts, post-2028 calendar reform, or new investments in infrastructure, the ECB now appears poised to take its first steps toward meaningful change—before exhaustion becomes crisis.
