Joe Root: Ex-England captain calls for reduced domestic cricket calendar to bring 'long-lasting benefits'

Former England captain Joe Root wants to see the amount of domestic cricket reduced to ease the demand on players.

The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) reported that four-fifths of players are worried about the physical effects of the amount of cricket played, while three-quarters are concerned about unsafe travel.

“It is apparent the schedule needs to change for a host of reasons to see long-lasting benefits for English cricket,” Root said.

“Having space to recover, prepare and improve your game during the season is crucial and the creation of minimum standards to protect travel windows and player welfare is non-negotiable.”

The PCA collected the reports in the pre-season after meeting with all first-class counties.

“There is a strong feeling the game has to listen to its most vital assets, its players,” PCA chief operating officer and former Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell said.

“A reduction in cricket has to be strongly looked at as the solution which the game desperately needs.

“The point in doing this is to try and create more awareness around it.

“At the ECB, there is definitely sympathy and understanding. Potentially in the wider county network with chairs and members, probably not so much, I would say.”

Root believes that changing the schedule could also have positive knock-on effects for the England team.

“You're trying to find a way of getting the standard of first-class and county cricket as close as you can to the international game,” he added. “There’s a large number of players who don't think the schedule is conducive to high-level performance.

“If we can find a way of making it so that gap is smaller and the product is better, in terms of stakeholders and members, everyone is going to be winning.”

With Championship matches, T20 Blast games, One-Day Cup fixtures, plus The Hundred, there are 121 days of domestic cricket planned for the forthcoming season, and there are also fixtures against lower-ranked and university sides.

Any changes will need to be agreed by the counties, who rejected a proposal from the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2022 that the number of fixtures be reduced.

An ECB spokesperson said: “As the PCA recognises, the men’s domestic schedule is a complex issue. The players have an important voice in discussions around this, and we are committed to working with them and the first-class counties to discuss the best ways of overcoming some of the challenges.”

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