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WATCH: Field of Dreams finalistsHealy: What must happen to fix intolerable cricket schedule
Ian Healy • November 18th, 2025 3:27 pm
I just can't stand our major cricket tour itineraries for a number of reasons.
Players have been formally questioning the playing schedule since the mid-90s without any impact, but the game has done nothing.
So, here we go again with this summer's Ashes.
It robs the fans, it rushes the players, then tires the types who can play every Test.
It makes workload management, which we spend our lives doing in cricket, seem foolish.
Surely, we're better than this. The fans might not see the best go round in an exciting decider because of injury or rest.
Lots of rest periods are premeditated now, and they stick to it. It's not just Australia or England, it's both of them.
2025 has seen Bumrah and Archer's workloads controlled, no matter the importance of the blockbuster.
We're having enough trouble providing available bowlers in pre-season, let alone in a series that's so tightly packed.
If 5-day matches aren't going to become 4-day matches, the rushing on tours will continue.
Straight away, this tour, if you make the Test matches 4 days long and the days a little bit longer, you don't lose so much.
In doing that, you've cleared 5 days of breathing space. That’s space to tour and explore, rehab and get your injuries right, or recapture your form.
We've forgotten to take time away. Great fast bowlers are removed because schedules are too tight. Batsmen in great form tire in the late parts, and in poor form, have no time for anything but cramming anxiety.
Breathe, people, is my message, and take time to do more good for the sport wherever you are touring.
Future tour program meetings are beginning for the next cycle, and things have to be decluttered.
Are we heading that way, though? I haven't heard too much.
As Ravi Shastri mentioned to us last week, commit to a tiered Test structure.
Decrease the number of bilateral T20 and One Day series, and like soccer, prioritise World Cups in those formats, and use private investment for the sport's security.
Then we can sit back and watch the best against the best much more often. Not just the best play someone else.
How much sightseeing are cricketers doing when they're on these beautiful tours of nice places? Cricket, why are we rushing?
This Ashes is a classic example; we're packing 5 Tests into 7 weeks.
It's unheard of, and it's too much.
