England are squeezing so many major events into 2021, but we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of downtime and player welfare, says Alex Bowden.
You’re a busy person, aren’t you? Even if you’re not, you’ll have had those days when the to-do list is long and every task seems urgent.
In general, most of us respond pretty well to this sort of occasional stress. As your heart-rate rises, your mind sharpens and you magically become more productive. ‘Why can’t I work like this all the time?’ you ask yourself. ‘I resolve to always work this efficiently and productively from this day forth.’
Throw in limited-overs series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Netherlands; limited-overs tours of South Africa and Bangladesh; the IPL; The Hundred; and perhaps even the World Test Championship final and it’s unarguably a busy year.
But it’s those headline Test series and the World T20 that will have the greatest impact. For the players, 2021 will be an unusually high pressure year. The series will be stressful, the build-up to the series will be stressful and being rested for any of the matches will also be stressful because there’s always that fear that you might lose your place.
The windows in which that stress might temporarily subside will also be far shorter than normal.
You could argue that the international careers of Trott and Bell both finished prematurely at an age when they might have expected to be at the peak of their powers.
Multi-format players Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow will all be around 30 years of age in 2021 and you have to wonder what impact that year’s schedule might have on them.
It has to be said that an onslaught of major events is also not what I want as a fan. I’m not especially keen to watch diminished matches in which an unknowable number of players are en route to the states of mind of described by Trott and Bell – and I could also do with some recovery time myself.
I love Test series against India; I love the World T20; I love the Ashes – but enjoyment is to some extent built on foundations of anticipation. The more we look forward to something, the more significant it feels.
We could all do with a little more downtime.
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