With Ben Stokes announcing his retirement from One-Day Internationals a few days ago, the world of cricket is in state of shock. But former cricketers are pointing to one common aspect of the sudden retirement - the tight international schedules. India, England and Australia specifically play most cricket among all ten teams. Take for example the India tour of England. Between July 1 and 17, England and India played 1 Test and 6 limited-overs matches. Then on July 19, England were back in the field to play the ODI vs South Africa again. Stokes had slammed ECB when he spoke to BBC after his ODI retirement. He said that cricketers are not like cars who run of fuel. He added that he hopes by taking this decision, he is able to play cricket at some level even at 36. 


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"There is too much cricket rammed in for people to play all three formats now. We are not cars, you can't just fill us up and we'll go out there and be ready to be fuelled up again. Hopefully, when I'm still playing at 36 I can look back at this moment and say it was a big reason behind why I'm still able to get out on the park and represent England in Test cricket," said Stokes. 


Former England captain Nasser Hussain has backed Stokes' statement, saying that excessive cricket is leading to burnout of players. He gave examples of Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson to prove his point.  



"Some might suggest 80 per cent of Stokes is enough but the problem is that once you play at 80 per cent, it can lead lead to a drop in performance in another format. Just look at what has happened to Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson, for example. He doesn’t want to become stale," Hussain was quoted as saying in his Daily Mail column.


Virat has taken a break from international cricket after the conclusion of the England tout. He has gone to Paris with his wife Anushka Sharma and daughter Vamika. His decision to rest was criticised by many former cricketers who felt that when he is out of form, why is he resting. Not to forget, Kohli has been out of form for a long time now, failing continously since IPL 2022. He has also not scored a single international ton since November 2019.