England Test captain Ben Stokes has urged for the scheduling of international cricket to be addressed in order to keep competition at the highest standard.
Stokes led England to a historic whitewash victory over Pakistan and was also inspirational in England's T20 World Cup win in November. This summer Stokes retired from one-day international cricket stating that playing for England over three formats was 'just unsustainable for me now'.
This comes against a background of more white-ball franchise leagues appearing and competing with the international game. Stokes wants the International Cricket Council (ICC) to re-think the international schedule in order to keep the best players competing at the highest level.
"The scheduling doesn’t get the attention it should," said Stokes. "Some people say ‘you are playing for England, that should be enough,’ but there is a lot more to factor in.
"You want international cricket to be of the highest standard but we have seen a lot of different squads being picked and players being rested and that’s not the way international cricket should go."
Since taking charge of England's Test team earlier this year, Stokes and Brendon McCullum have masterminded a stunning turnaround in fortunes.
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A team which had triumphed in just one of their last 17 Tests has now won nine of ten, ending the year by becoming the first side to ever whitewash Pakistan in Pakistan.
England's recent success has come by playing 'Bazball', an ultra-positive brand of cricket coined after McCullum's nickname. Stokes says that making Test cricket 'interesting' again for fans has been part of their plan.
He added: "In the last few years I have been hearing Test cricket being spoken about in a way I don’t like.
"It’s been losing the attention on it with all the new formats around the world. We do understand there’s so many opportunities out there for players to seek. But for me Test cricket is so important for this game and always should be. I absolutely love playing Test cricket and I just felt, and feel, that we could do something different as a team.
"If you can have people turn up and be really excited about the cricket they’re going to come and watch then I feel you’ve already won before you’ve even bowled a ball. We know we have a special opportunity now to do something bigger than ourselves."
