Too much cricket, too little rest: BCCI keen on player-friendly scheduling

Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Devajit Saikia said the board wants to come up with a better schedule for the senior men’s team, which will ensure cricketers get enough rest between matches and more time and warm-up games to get used to the conditions on overseas tours, especially in South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia (SENA).

Devajit Saikia admitted on Thursday after attending a much-anticipated evaluation meeting in Mumbai that players are injured far too often and conceded that the men’s team is playing too many matches. The chief administrator said that feedback was taken by captains Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir during the meeting.

“Individual players have injuries because they have to play a lot of matches. If you look at their schedule… if you look at the England tour, we had 15 players, the team went to ODIs and out of that 15, 3-4 players got injured during the matches. But we have to think about how they played in the two months of IPL before that,” Saikia said.

“So all of this is taking a toll, it’s taking a toll on the players’ health as well. And to avoid those situations, what’s the best thing we can do under the current windows and the current FTPs? We’re trying to find some ways out,” he said.

India have had a tough time in terms of availability of their key players after the IPL 2026 season. Hardik Pandya is out from the IPL, while Jasprit Bumrah missed the Test tour of Sri Lanka after sustaining a knee injury during India’s white-ball tour of England earlier this year. All-rounders Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana also had their share of struggles while out of spin Washington Sundar has missed the crucial Test series in Sri Lankawhere India missed his presence in the drawn second Test.

TOO MANY MATCHES PER YEAR

The A center of excellence in Bengaluru has also come under the scanner, with speculation about a breakdown in communication between the medical team there and the team management.

However, Devajit Saikia dismissed such rumours, saying that the key stakeholders of Indian cricket are perfectly in sync and better planning will help ease the workload of the players and support staff.

“Everyone is on the same page. BCCI is working very well, like a well-oiled engine. There is proper coordination between all wings of BCCI,” he said.

“Whether it is the women’s teams, the committees or their technical staff or their coaches, there is no difficulty in coordination towards the COE, towards the coaching staff of the Indian men’s team and the head coach. Everything is going in the right direction.”

“The only problems we face is that there are too many matches in a year, so we will do certain things in the next FTP. We will take certain measures.”

“We have instructed our FTP persons who will meet very soon in various international forums that our FTP should be such that it should be planned that there should be a proper rest for the players as well as some acclimatization or something, friendly matches before any big matches in SENA countries,” he said.

FULLY SUITABLE PLAYERS FOR AFG T20IS?

India have named a 15-man squad for the T20I series against Afghanistan, starting on September 13 in New Delhi. Four of the 15, including Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy, were picked in the squad but subject to fitness.

When asked if there were any concerns about their recovery, Saikia said, “We have a protocol in place for a player to come back to matches, in international matches. So, when a player gets injured, he goes to his own physio or comes to a rehab program under the COE. And before they allow him to be part of the Indian team, he has to take certain precautions and overcome certain hurdles that he has to overcome.”

“So we came back to those things today and whether that’s the best way we can move forward, players who don’t have any injuries in international matches. We discussed that issue and then we’ll discuss that topic further at our next meeting.”

“And we have taken feedback from the captains and the head coach who are the right people to give us information so that we can make the right strategy to avoid all these kinds of unwanted situations during any international or bilateral matches,” he said.

India have played the most matches (across formats) in 2026: 36, tied with New Zealand. Apart from international matches, India also has a two-month window for IPL and well-structured domestic cricket tournaments also require players to participate.

The current ICC Men’s FTP runs until 2027, meaning the next five-year cycle will offer the BCCI an opportunity to push for a more player-friendly international calendar with more time for rest and preparation. The BCCI will also have to balance the demands of the broadcasters as commercial considerations play a significant role in determining the timing and volume of bilateral programs in India.

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Issued by:

Akshay Ramesh

Published on:

03 Sep 2026 19:28 IST