Former South Africa bowler Allan Donald said that it won’t be surprising if players decide to skip leagues as well as international assignments due to the strain caused by a packed schedule, something that only looks to increase in the future.
“The injuries, unfortunately to a guy who is a box-office bowler, Anrich Nortje, and a couple of others, is not ideal. It is what the rest of the world wants to see, a guy bowling at 155 clicks and and making things happen,” Donald said during an interaction organised by SA20.
Nortje is among the names such Lungi Ngidi, Gerald Coetzee, Nandre Burger and Lizaad Williams who have been ruled out of the important 2-Test series against Pakistan with the Proteas’ place in the World Test Championship final at stake.
“It is, unfortunately, the brutality of the world game and where it is. What these guys are going through now (with) all the leagues, I’m not surprised that a lot of the guys will miss a league here, a tournament there and maybe even for their country.” “It’s an ongoing cycle, it’s hard to stop the level of the stress that gets put on the bodies unfortunately. But again, it’s an opportunity for someone else to take a claim and that’s what we want to see,” Donald added.
Donald said players are completely aware of their workload and they no more need to be told about when to take a rest.
“We were already seen Nortje basically just saying ‘I don’t want another a national contract. I want to focus, look after my body a bit more’.” “He’s had serious injuries (and) so all of a sudden South Africa are losing a huge asset, but that is now where the players are putting themselves in terms of looking after their own workloads.” “You simply cannot blame them. There’s so many leagues out there at the moment, even the T10 at the moment is making its voice heard. There’s nothing you can do, you know,” he added.
(With agency inputs)
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