It has not been announced officially yet, but England will be playing a two-match Test series next summer against New Zealand on top of the future tours programme. After just one year, the England and Wales Cricket Board has scrapped its desired model of playing six Tests per summer. Now they will play seven, five against India, two with New Zealand; the extra matches useful earners for counties whose grounds were empty last year.
England have also agreed to a short, symbolic tour to Pakistan in October. It is only four days, and repays Pakistan for coming to England at the height of the pandemic, but is extra cricket on top of what was agreed when the future tours programme was drawn up. They are also playing two Tests in Sri Lanka in January, left over from earlier this year when the pandemic first broke, adding to the workload. Then there is the IPL in April.
It is a fantasy to suggest players will pull out of the IPL. There is too much money at stake. There is a ‘mega’ auction in January, which happens every three years and can make players very rich indeed as franchises completely rebuild their squads.
But ECB central contracts are very lucrative and should inspire loyalty too. The players have a responsibility to not chase every franchise dollar. Tom Curran and Tom Banton have this week pulled out of the Big Bash, citing bubble fatigue. Neither has a central contract and Banton has been carried around by England but not playing many games for most of the year. Their decision is understandable, but five England players are leaving South Africa on Thursday to go to Australia to take up Twenty20 deals having not felt in the right frame of mind to play two ODIs against South Africa.
The ECB is a good employer. It looks after the players and staff well, and has learnt from mistakes of the past. The board is aware of the mental wellbeing of the cricketers but there has to be more foresight about which players to pick and when.
“Post-Christmas we are going to have to manage our bubbles well and manage our people really well,” admitted Ashley Giles, the team director.
The IPL allowed players to bring their families into the bubble. Jos Buttler was accompanied by his wife and young daughter in the UAE. It is different for England and overseas boards will not go to the expense of allowing England players to bring wives and children. England did not allow them into the bubble last summer either as they looked to mitigate risk as much as possible.
But David Warner warned recently that international cricketers will soon pick and choose tours to protect their family lives. “The next 12 months is very difficult when you look at the calendar, there’s going to be definitely times where you can come home and have time with your family,” he said. It is no different for England.
International cricketers live gilded lives, staying in fine hotels and enjoying the luxuries of sporting fame and wealth. But 2021 culminates in the toughest challenge of all for an England player, an Ashes tour.
It’s a terribly difficult situation to manage. But to give England the best chance of winning in Australia both players and administrators have to think carefully. For the players that means considering franchise cricket offers very carefully. For the ECB, resisting the urge to repay debts (both financial and moral ones) by playing more cricket is the challenge otherwise there could be more fraught team meetings in hotel rooms around the world.
