Ben Stokes urges rethink on England’s ‘ridiculous’ fixture log jam

Ben Stokes has called for England’s “ridiculous” match schedule to be addressed as he prepares for a summer when there will be play on up to 50 of 102 days between the start of the first Test against New Zealand on 2 June and the end of the last match against South Africa on 12 September.

Next month the men’s Test team, of which Stokes is the newly appointed captain, will be assembled in England for their games against New Zealand while the white-ball squad is in the Netherlands for a three-match ODI series.

“The schedule definitely is something that needs looking at,” Stokes said. “It’s ridiculous the amount of cricket that is expected of people to play. The fact there is a Test match and a one-day series overlapping sums it up. It really needs looking at from a workload point of view, it is just so much.

“I want to play as much as I can for England and in an ideal world you would have a schedule that allows you to play everything, but unfortunately that is not possible. My No 1 priority is Test cricket at the moment so I have to prioritise that over white ball.”

Stokes has revealed he was worried that people would not consider him ready to take over as captain because of the four months he chose to spend away from the game last summer to prioritise his mental health. He telephoned the England & Wales Cricket Board’s director of men’s cricket, Rob Key, another new appointment, to reassure him as speculation swirled about who would replace Joe Root, who stepped down last month.

“After the news about Joe, I phoned Rob and said: ‘I just want to make you aware, if the opportunity is there I’m ready for it,’” Stokes said. “Just to stop any: ‘Will he? Won’t he.’ A few days following Joe’s news, I thought to myself I was ready