The Indian cricket team’s head coach Ravi Shastri has requested the Board of Control for Cricket in India to give the players and support staff adequate rest between series.
Shastri made the request on Friday via a video conference with the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators and BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri, reported The Indian Express.
The Indian team has recently returned home from a long tour of Sri Lanka and are slated to play a limited-overs series against Australia starting September 17. This will be followed by a limited-overs series against New Zealand starting October 22 and then another full series against Sri Lanka at home beginning on November 15.
India will then travel to South Africa in the last week of December for what is bound to be a difficult tour including three Twenty20 Internationals, as many one-day games and four Test matches.
“Such tight scheduling gives the players little time to recuperate,” Shastri was reported to have said. A BCCI official told the daily, “The international calendar is so tight these days and it’s not only the matches that take a toll on players’ body, but the long flights and travelling. Shastri has requested us to look into it, as he believes it would help players to recover faster.”
The official added, “England and Australia give enough gaps between series and the BCCI too should have a plan where players can get a decent break and recover better. Otherwise, everyone is happy with the way how BCCI is taking care of its players.”
The Indian team manager Kapil Malhotra had also made a similar request to the BCCI after the Champions Trophy in the United Kingdom in June, the report said.
“If you see the scheduling, the day we got into London in the morning, within a few hours the Captain had to attend the arrival press conference, then [the] captains’ photo shoot, then the entire squad had to attend an anti-doping educational briefing along with an ACU educational briefing,” Malhotra was reported to have written in his report to the BCCI.
