English Test captain and star all-rounder Ben Stokes's retirement came as a shocking surprise to many cricketing pundits and experts all around the globe. Stokes who is one of the few all-format players for England tweeted about his retirement on July 18, 2022, and cited fitness-related concerns. The English all-rounder was extremely vocal about his body and how he feels as a three-format player and he straightaway expressed that the English team has a grueling schedule ahead and hence, he wants to call it quits on his One Day Internationals (ODI) career.
Former England captain and now an extremely successful broadcaster Nasser Hussain has now weighed into the matter and has said that if a 31-year-old guy calls it quits on one format of the game, then it clearly shows that things are not managed properly on the international stage. Nasser did not mince his words and he stated "I guess it's the schedule. The cricketing schedule is crazy at the moment".
It is hard to disagree with Hussain after looking at England's cricket schedule from 2023-27. The English cricket team is scheduled to play a total of 42 Test matches, 44 ODI, and 52 T20Is apart from two ODI World Cups, two T20I World Cups, and two Champions Trophies. The former English captain also took a sly dig at the BCCI and said that the ICC has been extremely callous at granting limitless windows to franchise cricket and whatever time is left, they either pad it up with ICC events or fit in bilaterals.
The future of ODI cricket continues to remain in doubt and after Ben Stokes, many cricket experts are speculating that players from other countries might just follow the path that Stokes has shown.
