Filed under: Cricket, England Cricket
The fall-out from England's World Cup exit and the hectic schedule this winter has so far centered around which players might decide to be more selective about their availability.But Michael Vaughan has raised a far more worrying issue in an interview with Wisden Cricketer, suggesting that the way the ECB has flogged its players over the last five months could cost them the best thing that has happened to English cricket for several years.
Vaughan knows what he is talking about. He has been England captain and at the sharp end of constant touring and endless cricket and he feels a continuation of the relentless international calendar could see the ECB lose coach Andy Flower.
"I do fear for Andy Flower," Vaughan said, when asked to comment on the position of the England team director.
"The last thing you'd want is to risk him passing on the reins because the job involves so much time away."
England have recently returned from a winter programme that began in November with the build-up to the 3-1 Ashes success, masterminded by Flower and his carefully selected coaching staff.
That was swiftly followed by six weeks at the ICC World Cup, with only a three-day break in between and the clock is ticking down to the start of England's home campaign this summer against Sri Lanka and India.
Three Tests against Sri Lanka, five ODIs and a Twenty20 international is the precursor to five Tests against the ICC World Champions, a five-match ODI series and a Twenty20 game.
England will barely have chance to draw breath at the end of the home internationals before they fly out to face India in five ODIs in October and they will be on the road again from January to March to face Pakistan, probably at a neutral venue and Sri Lanka.
When the ECB managing director Hugh Morris chairs the de-brief of the winter programme next month, his priority has to be ensuring that all is done to keep Flower in his post.
Flower has already made it clear he would like more say in the scheduling of future tours and unless he is given that element of control and input, Vaughan's fears could well be realised.
With the financial meltdown still impacting hard at domestic level in the counties, the ECB has a responsibility to maximise revenue from the Test arena, to drip feed down the food chain.
They also have a greater responsibililty to balance income with future tour programmes, otherwise playing for and leading the international team may be viewed as too much of a commitment and to lose a man of Flower's integrity, diligence and skill would be an act of gross negligence.
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