Former Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor has raised concerns over the “unfixable” issue surrounding the future of cricket, as Australia engages in a five-match T20 series against India, merely four days after clinching the ODI World Cup final.
Taylor expressed his views on Wide World of Sports radio, “There’s no doubt a bit of a hangover over there, these five T20 matches against India certainly haven’t got the same importance I think from anyone’s point of view as the World Cup final did have only a week or so ago.”
The Australian team, featuring World Cup squad members Steve Smith, Josh Inglis, Marcus Stoinis, and Sean Abbott, has suffered losses in the first two T20 matches. Notably, Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa returned for the second fixture, reflecting the challenge of managing player rotations and fatigue.
The tightly packed schedule faced by the Australian team is a result of a grueling year, which included Test tours of India and England, the World Test Championship final, the ODI World Cup, and two white-ball series against South Africa and India. Additionally, several Australian players participated in the Major League Cricket competition in the USA.
Taylor expressed skepticism about finding a solution to the jam-packed cricketing calendar in the modern era.
Mark Taylor highlighted the conflicting interests of various stakeholders, saying, “There’s a lot of different people pulling the games different ways, there’s people … that want to see more Test cricket.”
“Then you’ve got this new kid on the block (called) T20, you’ve got leagues springing up everywhere, not just the IPL or the Big Bash here in Australia, you’ve got American leagues, Saudi leagues, Carribean leagues, Pakistan leagues, there’s leagues that are going to spring up all the time and they’re very attractive to play.”
The former captain noted the challenge posed by having three distinct formats of the game. While this diversity allows for a rich tapestry of cricket including all three formats.
it also means that certain series, such as the current T20 matches against India, may be compromised due to scheduling constraints, preventing the best players from consistently facing each other.
