Ben Stokes’ recent ODI retirement decision served as a wake-up call among the cricket fraternity, with its increasingly intense scheduling taking a toll on players’ fitness and the mental well-being.
While many expect Stokes’ path to be followed by numerous players in future, his former teammate Jonny Bairstow, one of England’s premier all-format players, is keen on continuing in all three formats for as long as possible.
“I don’t know if it’s good or bad that I’m one of the last all-format players,”
Bairstow told Sky Sports on Friday ahead of the second ODI against South Africa, which the hosts went on to win by 118 runs to level the series.
“Naturally there are challenges, we’ve seen that over a period of time now. We only had to look at the Test series this summer when there was the one-day squad in Holland at the same time.
“But you know me well enough now: I’ll be trying to play all of them for as long as possible. I’ll be going all out for as long as I can.
Stokes, following his retirement, had expressed his worries over the intense scheduling, urging the authorities to stop viewing players as cars.
Also read 👉 “We are not cars” – Stokes slams authorities for “too much cricket”
Bairstow echoed in the sentiments of his Test skipper, while adding that not much can be done by the players to address it all.
“I don’t think we have a choice, do we? The schedule is the schedule”.
“They are trying to fit in different things like the Hundred and everything else. It’s a tricky job for everyone, but Ben mentioned a car and re-fuelling, didn’t he, which I thought was a good analogy.
But yes, it does have certain impacts, and if you’re playing everything at full intensity it will take it out of people.”
