Ben Stokes's message: Cricket calendar needs a breather or brace for the demise of the all-format cricketer – The Indian Express

Ben Stokes bade farewell to 50-over cricket with a stern message. That cricketers are not cars that “you can fill up with petrol and let us go”. Neither the warning nor the imagery was new, and it’s unlikely that cricket boards would, in a fit of sympathy, decide to de-fatten the calendar. Quite the opposite though, the boards are likely to with “the player is not bigger than the game” truism, while the players would end up picking games, tournaments and even formats. So much so that the all-format cricketers’ tribe could fade away in a not-so-distant future. Not because they cannot master the three formats, but because they are exhausted, emotionally, physically and psychologically, to play all three formats at the highest level with the same intensity.
The cricket calendar is packed airtight. So congested that two teams of the same country are playing in two different parts of the world against two different teams at the same time. One India team was locked in a Test match against England; another was preparing for T20s against England. The busy calendar will only get busier, until it cannot get busier. Inevitably, even the strongest of cross-format virtuosos could be forced to prioritise and channel all their energies onto a couple of formats, lest they burn out.
Batsmen and spinners, to an extent, would look to cling on. But bowlers and especially fast-bowling all-rounders like Ben Stokes, feel the rigours. There are still plenty of fast-bowlers and all-rounders who ply all three formats with proficiency. But a future wherein they forsake one format for preserving themselves in the other two is not too far. Once the body wears more and the calendar gives you no breathing space, they would pause and then choose. Someone had to set a precedent; Stokes has set one.
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