KOLKATA, July 16: India’s cricket board on Tuesday supported Test captains who have complained that players were struggling to cope with a crowded playing schedule.

“This schedule is no schedule,” said Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“The schedules are too tight. The ICC’s strenuous programme is making the situation difficult.”

The impact of a packed international calendar was the main discussion point at an International Cricket Council meeting with eight of the 10 test-playing nations’ captains at Lord’s on Monday.

New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming spoke of the captains’ concerns that the current schedule was resulting in more injuries and leading to player burn-out.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said the consensus among the captains was that the volume of cricket played had “gone about as far as it can go”.

Dalmiya, who was the previous chief of the ICC until Malcolm Gray took over two years ago, said the Indian players were among those severely affected by non-stop travel and play.

“The players don’t have 24 hours to rest and stay in a port (city). They have no time to recoup. But you have to fulfil commitments,” he said.

Dalmiya was referring to the team’s hectic schedule in the run up to next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

India returned from a tour of West Indies early in June and set off for England a fortnight later to play a one-day series followed by four Tests which ends on Sept 10.

The players will change flights almost on arrival to reach Colombo for the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled from Sept 12 to 29.

They then face West Indies in a home series from Oct 1 to Nov 24 before leaving on a tour of New Zealand, scheduled from Dec 4 to Jan 14.

The team will hold its final World Cup preparations at home before leaving for South Africa on Jan 31 for the Feb 8 to March 23 event.

Indian officials now plan to rest key players, a young set of fast bowlers in particular, for the first-class matches in England to preserve them for the tests.

“We don’t want fast bowlers to burn out,” Dalmiya said.

Both West Indies and New Zealand boards have agreed to BCCI’s request for pruning the number of Tests by two games while adding two extra one-dayers to the original schedule to reduce playing days and also help prepare better for the World Cup.—Reuters