Crammed schedule will force teams to field separate squad: Moody

Sydney, June 2 (UNI) Already crammed calendar and cricket boards clamouring for more cricket will leave countries with no other option but to field completely separate squads in Tests and one-dayers for players to survive the overload, Tom Moody predicts.

''If they (cricket boards) are going to continue down that track there must be serious thought given to a full one-day set-up and Test set-up with two teams and two coaches.

''If that's what they (cricket boards) want. If the demand is there for more cricket, maybe the price for that is that you're not going to see a Ricky Ponting or an Adam Gilchrist in both forms of the game. Players would be designated to one form of the game and countries build a team for the other format,'' Moody was quoted as saying by 'The Australian'.

He also pointed towards Australia's unprecedented 18-month schedule from September, which includes a Twenty20 World Cup followed by 24 Tests and up to 50 one-day matches played in four different countries.

''Looking at the Australian fixtures in 2008, Australia play something like 22 Tests in little more than a year, and that's at least seven too many.

''If we're trying to look after the game and get our best cricketers on the park full-time and give the public the best standard of cricket with the best players on display, you're not going to do it trying to play 22 Tests in a year and throwing in more than 30 one-dayers as well as Twenty20 matches,'' the 41-year-old said.

The former Australia player is also a member of the ICC's recently formed cricket committee, which criticised the volume of games during a two-day meeting in Dubai this week.

''There seems to be more add-on tournaments than there is on the set out and structured fixture list that the Australians and England and some other countries tend to have,''the former Lankan coach said.

''It's finding the balance of the financial gain the cricket boards can have against harming the game and the players along the way,'' he added.

UNI