Steve Harmison has criticised the organisation of the county cricket season saying it contains too many matches and starts too early.
The Durham and England fast bowler told BBC Look North: "We play far too much cricket - as simple as that. "That's how you're going to get people injured, That's how you're not going to get the quality of cricket."
Durham begin their campaign at Hampshire on Friday, 8 April and finish against Worcestershire on 15 September.
Harmison added that Durham in particular suffer from the way the county season is structured.
"We've got 41 playing days in the first 60 and that's without travelling," he said. "We're not an hour-and-a-half away from everywhere. We've got an eight or nine-hour trip tonight to go to Hampshire."
But he added that the Durham team will not let this affect them: "The start of the season has been a little bit of a rush but everyone's just looking forward to playing some competitive cricket."
Harmison added that it is not just county cricket that suffers from the cricket calendar.
He had harsh words for the England and Wales Cricket Board, blaming it for England's disappointing World Cup with defeats by lower-ranked opponents Ireland and Bangladesh.
"The same people who are running the game are sending top international players away from home for five months," he said.
Looking ahead to the new county cricket season, Harmison believes that Durham's preparation in Dubai, with warm-up matches against Sussex and the Emirates Twenty20 competition, could help them to the title.
"We haven't gone to Dubai to finish fourth or fifth," he said.
"We've got a squad good enough to win, barring injuries we should be up there."
0 comments:
Post a Comment