A growing number of ex-players, journalists and fans are becoming increasingly concerned that there are now too many articles being written about there being too much international cricket.

One England player, who asked to remain anonymous, put the case in bleak terms.

“To be honest, it’s just such a treadmill,” he said. “For instance, I did an interview with a national newspaper journalist about player burnout at the close of play on Monday. On Tuesday morning, I had to drive into the Sky studios to do a to-camera bit about how we should cut the number of counties to 10. By Tuesday lunchtime, I’m on Talksport with Ronnie Irani saying that I’m worried about injuries due to the amount of Twenty20.

“Frankly, I hardly know whether I am speaking to a newspaper, a magazine, or a TV channel. We need less interviews, higher quality interviews, and more time to prepare between interviews.”

Former Australian Test-great Brad Brett reckons that the English game has much to learn from the set-up Down Under.

“Aw, look, yeah,” said Brett. “Look, back at home, we have far less newspapers and our blokes might go two, three weeks without doing an interview. That means that when a guy does get a chance to speak to a journalist, he’s bloody determined to make the most of it.

“You take a bloke like Andrew Symonds: he’s hungry to get on the radio. He’s paid his dues, he wants his chance, when he finally gets on, he’s straight into calling Brendon McCullum a ‘lump of shit’ like he’s been on the radio for 10 years.

“Now, his English counterpart, he’s been ground down by the sheer weight of interviews and the treadmill of the media circuit, he’d probably only be able to say: “Er yeah obviously Brendon’s a very dangerous player.”

“And to be brutally honest, it’s the fans that are getting short-changed,” added Brett. “But not if they buy my hard-hitting new autobiography, Jesus Christ Thommo That Pommie Keeper Looks Like A Sheila, available in all good book shops and butchers now.”

Respected journalists are also feeling the pressure of the sheer volume of copy to be written about the sheer volume of cricket.

One senior correspondent on a national paper admitted: “Actually, I’ve got a button set up on my keyboard – one of the IT lads did it for me – that I can press and it just generates all the key phrases ‘burnout… sovereignty of the five-day game… intensity of Test cricket… ghastly little Indian Modi… what would Cyril Washbrook have made of it all…’ and rearranges them into something approaching a coherent article.”

Even in India, the new seat of cricketing power, there are worrying signs that public appetite for news stories about too much cricket may be on the wane.
“During the recent Champions League, several respected current affairs programs such as The State Of Cricket Today, Sachin Tonight, and Strictly Come Cricket saw sharp drops in viewing figures,” says one India media analyst. “A televised debate in which members of the audience asked some journalists what other journalists thought about Lalit Modi killing cricket was watched by only 723 million people.”

“The writing is on the wall for articles and programmes about there being too much cricket, and we need to act before it is too late.”

By Alan Tyers