Matt Maher: Sport's big men highlight big problems with the calendar
Other than their imposing height, in a sporting sense you wouldn’t think footballer Chris Wood and cricketer Oliver Hannon-Dalby have all too much in common.
Yet in the past week, both have emerged as key spokesmen in an issue increasingly central to both of their respective sports - that of player workload.
Warwickshire seamer Hannon-Dalby, chair of the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) since the beginning of the year, has been outspoken in his criticism of the sport’s decision-makers, after nearly a year of negotiations over changing the domestic schedule resulted in virtually no change at all.
Nottingham Forest striker Wood, now a member of Fifpro’s global player council, refused to rule out the possibility of strike action after a report from the world players’ union concluded last season’s timetable was “no way to treat a human”.
“It (a strike) is a potential thing I’m sure, but we don’t ever want to get to that point,” said Wood, during a round of media interviews this week, words which echoed those of PCA chief executive Daryl Mitchell a few days earlier when discussing the situation in cricket.
There are doubtless many for whom the notion of professional sportspeople, particularly footballers, going on strike is preposterous. After all, aren’t these people living an existence which is a dream to millions around the world?
That’s the knee-jerk reaction, anyway. A closer examination of the facts, in both sports, suggests the players might have a point. The difficulty, as cricket has found, is finding consensus on how you reshape the calendar in an environment where self-interest typically reigns.
When discussions over a restructure of domestic men’s English cricket began this time last year, there was general agreement something needed to change. Pick out the schedule for any of the 18 counties in the 2025 season and in many cases it will look a mess, with T20 matches wedged in between County Championship fixtures and vice versa, with travel arrangements which quite literally push the boundaries, with some teams being asked to play in the afternoon having arrived back in the early hours of the same day.
