England’s Test captain Ben Stokes dropped a big bombshell on Monday when he announced said that he would be retiring from the 50-overs format. Stokes is playing his last ODI match today against South Africa in Durham.

While announcing his retirement from One Day Internationals, Ben Stokes said that playing all the three formats of the game seems unsustainable for him right now and precisely that’s why he decided to call time on his ODI career.

But this was one of those rare times when a 31 years old International cricketer took retirement from ODIs and hence the debate over cricket schedules has also begun on internet. For many the new of Stokes’ retirement came as a disappointment as it is a reflection of cricketing schedule at this moment.

It seems nothing less than a madness for players, especially for the ones who play all the three formats, the fatigue, the chase, the pressure to perform well after living in bio bubble and handling continuous criticism was already something that the world wasn’t interested in understanding but now the cricket schedule is something that the ICC should focus on.

The ICC can’t just keep putting on ICC events and then individual boards can’t just keep filling the gaps with bilateral series and their own leagues. With so much of non-stop play the cricketers will be forced to say I’m done. The case of Ben Stokes is evident enough of this fact.

It also seems like ODIs is something that everyone is tired off. As most of the players like Test cricket as it gives them a chance to challenged their skill at every innings. Moreover, 20-20 being the shortest format is an easy access, hence the 50 overs cricket is getting left out. In addition to that several countries have also pulled out of bilateral series in white-ball cricket, which has coasted them in World Cup qualification.

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