Packed schedule could lead to more players quitting red-ball cricket: Trevor Bayliss

Photo: Reuters

New Delhi: England players will continue to drop red-ball cricket for their county clubs if the current congested schedule is not reduced, the national team`s head coach Trevor Bayliss said. Last month, England opener Alex Hales and all-rounder Adil Rashid chose to play only limited-overs cricket for their counties Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire respectively.

Bayliss said that he would be disappointed if more players chose not to play Test matches but understood their decisions with international and domestic fixtures piling up. "It`s becoming a way of the world, those decisions having to be made," Bayliss was quoted as saying by The Times. "I`d be disappointed (if more were to follow), but I understand how players come to them, especially the guys who are eligible for all three forms. 

"The amount of cricket played, it`s almost impossible to play all those games. You add those games in with county matches they want to play, and it`s a lot. ... It`s down to the schedule. I did say before about international T20 giving way to franchise, it`s either that or you play less, or we accept that they are going to make those decisions..."

The 55-year-old had previously suggested that Twenty20 internationals should be stopped to alleviate players` schedules. Bayliss also said that no decision had been made on whether to re-instate all-rounder Ben Stokes as England`s vice captain, after the 26-year-old lost the role following his suspension for the Ashes series.

England clinched their five-match one-day international series against New Zealand 3-2 with victory on Saturday and now turn their attention to the two-match test series, which begins in Auckland on March 22.