With England’s all-rounder Ben Stokes retiring from ODIs, a debate has started over the cricket calendar and how much cricket the players are being asked to play. Speaking before his final ODI earlier this week, Stokes had said that players are not cars where they can be filled with petrol or diesel. Now, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja has said that there are many nations who are running cricket like football and they will soon realise what they have done.

“There are people who try to run cricket like football. Many nations are already doing it. They will soon realise what they have done when they complete the calendar,” Cricket Pakistan quoted Raja as saying.

Earlier, former England captain Nasser Hussain while speaking about Ben Stokes’ decision to retire from ODIs, said that the current cricket schedule is just “madness for players”.

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“It is disappointing news, to say the least, but it is a reflection of where the cricketing schedule is at the moment. It is madness for players. If the ICC just keeps putting on ICC events and individual boards just keep filling the gaps with as much cricket as possible, eventually these cricketers will just say I’m done. Stokes is done with one format aged 31, which can’t be right, really. The schedule needs looking at, it is a bit of a joke at the moment,” Hussain told Sky Sports.

“It looks like 50-over cricket is the one everyone is looking at, because everyone loves Test match cricket and everyone loves T20 cricket. The IPL is getting a wider window, so that’ll go on for even longer and players will pull out. South Africa have also pulled out of a bilateral series coming up in white-ball cricket which could cost them qualification to the World Cup, and that is a big deal,” he added.