We had the same number of work days: Steve Waugh

Former Australia skipper Steve Waugh has scoffed the idea that the current crop of Australian players is fatigued and overworked. Waugh, who called time on his cricketing career also boasted of a prolific record in domestic cricket in the Sheffield Shield tournament as well as a captain at the international level.

Waugh stated that if a player was suffering from fatigue, it would be better for the player to drop the IPL in spite of the massive money and the cash incentives each player receives. This comes shortly after the whitewash in the ODI series against South Africa where a makeshift bowling attack was deployed, something that was absolutely no match for the talented South African batsmen.

“There can’t be [too much cricket] because they choose to play in the Indian Premier League. There can’t be too much cricket because they keep playing more,” Waugh was quoted, as saying by Sport24.

Waugh also went on to add that compared to him, Steve Smith and other previous skippers also worked the similar number of days.

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“I looked at the schedules and I think they compared myself and Steve Smith and the previous captains on workload and we’re playing the same amount of days. They don’t play any Sheffield Shield cricket or club cricket – we used to play all that as well,” the former skipper said. “Their’s is probably more intense, more international cricket, but days played, we played as much and traveled as much and these days the hotels are better than when I first started playing,” he added.

Tony Irish, the FICA chief executive also had his say in the matter. “Players around the world are strong in their view that all international cricket should be the best versus the best and this needs to be the case to ensure the international product is as good as it can be for players, fans and broadcasters,” he said. “Best versus the best will not happen when elite players who play all formats are not available because the national team is playing different formats at the same time,” Irish added.

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