The international cricket calendar can be brutal.
India, as is common with many modern-day cricket tours, are committed to a series of Test, One Day International (ODI), and T20 matches during their visit of the West Indies – totalling 18 days of cricket in the space of just over a month.
Days after that tour ends, the team has a 3 match ODI series against Ireland in Dublin as ‘warm up’ ahead of their Asian Cup campaign, which could total another 7 games if, as they hope, they are to reach the final, a final scheduled for the 17th of September.
On the 8th of October, less than a month after they could potentially have lifted the Asian Cup trophy, the team kick-off their ODI Cricket World Cup campaign against Australia in Chennai – their fourth meeting – having squeezed in a quick three match warm up series in the days that fall between.
It’s exhausting to read, let alone to play in – particularly for the multi-format fast bowlers who are expected to continue charging in and bowling upwards of 140kph (90mph).
An action which, as ECB data scientist Nathan Leamon put it, puts more force through the lumbar spine than any other athletic action, yet their availability to compete is so often the deciding factor in matches and series.
All eyes will be on Jasprit Bumrah in the T20I series in Ireland later this month as he will be making a comeback in the team after recovering from injury#JaspritBumrah #ICCWorldCup2023 https://t.co/THm0GXCH8j
— CricketNDTV (@CricketNDTV) August 3, 2023
It’s perhaps no surprise then that when asked during the recent Test series with the West Indies about the demands of India’s schedule, Indian bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey, said workload management will be important, and that “going forward we have to give breaks to individual bowlers.”
The toll of international cricket has been immense on a number of the world’s most talented fast bowlers – including Indian star Jasprit Bumrah, who has spent much of the past year on the sidelines with an injury but is set to return for their upcoming matches against Ireland next month.
Discussing Bumrah return to international cricket, Australian cricket legend Glen McGrath has echoed Mhambrey’s sentiment and urged the star bowler to manage his workload well if he wants to continue playing for India for a long time.
Should Bumrah play all formats and risk aggravating injuries? 🤔#Cricket pic.twitter.com/8Jcp8ZhlSH
— CricXtasy (@CricXtasy) August 5, 2023
The amount of cricket that is being played in the present era, McGrath suggests, makes it difficult for players to sustain and puts a huge strain on their bodies – particularly for a bowler like Bumrah, who has a unique action that puts additional stress on his lower back.
Grappling with the calendar and the different formats of the game has also led a number of other players to make decisions to step away from certain areas.
Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, for instance, recently retired from ODIs, meanwhile Pat Cummins, Stokes’ opposite number for Australia, has withdrawn from the Indian Premier League season earlier this year, turning away a $1.3m cheque in the process – all in the name of workload management.
Retiring from a format of the game or walking away from large sums of money is certainly one strategy that players can adopt in order to prolong their time at the top, however, there is surely a more effective, nuanced and less binary approach to the whole process?
Currently, even at the most elite levels, much of the workload management of a bowler is based on an arbitrary measurement, such as number of overs/ balls that they have bowled – not factoring in for elements like intensity, environment, and travel.
While data collection tools such as GPS are often worn at the international level, and other data points may also be collected from time to time, there is currently a limited infrastructure and lack of connectivity between franchises and national teams meaning that this data rarely talks to one another – something sports such as American Football, Basketball, and Soccer are all turning to AI to address.
While AI is a long way from selecting the team or replacing a coach, its ability to process large sets of data in rapid time, means that if properly trained on the right data, it could help a bowling coach and a bowler to make a better-informed decision about their involvement in training and matches.
As franchises become increasingly dominant – and the fees that they invest to acquire a player’s services continue to rise – this need to transparently communicate and manage workload whilst with club and country will become ever greater.
Elite sport evolves and it is time cricket followed suit. Gone should be the days of simply counting how many balls have been bowled as a means to protect the most prized assets of the game. Furthermore, the teams that move first with responsible innovation and increase the availability of their best quick bowlers will almost certainly create a huge advantage for themselves over rivals that are later adopters.
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