I despair at the amount of One day Cricket - but I suppose taste is subjective - pity you cant put links on this forum - Im off to search for this

Why are we playing the Aussies AGAIN next year?

All the talk about needing to reduce the amount of cricket has been ignored. It will be interesting to see what the international players union think of the new schedules, they have been vociferous in their statements in recent years.

Somebody help me - if everyone in cricket is saying there is too much cricket and everyone I know that supports cricket says there is too much - why does it keep happening - is it the county money men - is it the TV people - in the short term it could be - but no-one knows who can bid for the home games after 2012/13 do they??? and when does the tv contract end currently - and does the other boards deals have an effect on our fixtures - is it all back scratching - am I just stupid?????

Why is it - that everyone in my circle of cricketing friends have little time for ODIs or certainly the amount of them? do I lead that sheltered a life that I dont come across these one day fans - WHY SO MANY GAMES

PS all that said - Im glad of proper Test series lengths returning

Lydne
What would be the perfect English summer?

Two x three test matches or if the ashes 5 tests plus a couple against Bangladesh with a ODI tournament afterwards perhaps.

If England are sensible we shall see more players given opportunities in the one day squads and fewer test players playing both forms of the game. It's the only way to prevent fatigue and perhaps injury to bowlers.
The schedule in Oz should be a warning signal to the selectors that they asked too much from the test squad.

HHmmmmm I think 1 major series and 1 minor series every summer this does not depend on the opposition just on how it gets organised and using a bit of common sense - also adaptable.

So a major series would comprise of 4/5 tests 2 T20 1 ODI
a minor series 2/3 tests (so 7 in total) 3 T20 2 ODIs or even better for the one days - a triangular tournament with the outgoing and incoming touring team in between the tours with 1 group game against each team and a final.

Although the Ashes would always be a major tour - all other teams would not be major or minor teams - just major or minor tours - so if India were doing the minor tour - no disrespect - just a deal between the 2 boards - if New Zealand were the major tour - so be it

Thats the perfect answer for me

Ps also an end to bespoke random ODI tours

Seven ODI series often end up with two or three dead games. Certainly the 2009 and 2011 series of England/Australia ended that way.

Very true - tbh even if its a tight series they are still a bit monotonous after the first 2 games and upto the last one - but as I said its personal taste - if they never played another 1 day game i would be ok with that

Five at the very most or a triangular series would suffice.

Also, two 20/20 matches before the tests. This way you have your starter, main course and pudding in the right order.

ok i'm never going to be a fan of random odi series like the one in india this winter they seem pointless especially since eveybody knows we play too much odi cricket anyway. We also seem to be playing a lot of odi's on winter tours, to me this makes the tours too long and leads to injury and it seems depression!!

However i like the build up for the next world cup - just odi's in that winter which makes sense. England will be tested over the coming years with lots of quality tours and series.

It will be interesting to see how they manage their bowlers with all this cricket will the fringe players be in for odi series and shorter test series against say new zeland or west indies. No disrespect to these sides and I dont think they're at all a walkover but is it worth giving younger players experience and risk a defeat?

I would also bin the world cup

The best ODI competition I've seen was the Champions Trophy in SA 2009. Just eight top test teams in two groups of four. Great cricket and all over in two weeks.

I can live with that Hope!