India Men's cricket team schedule: Death by a thousand matches

Two days after the ICC T20 World Cup ends, India will play New Zealand in three T20Is and two Test matches. It was good that India did not qualify for the knockouts.

The New Zealand tour of India will begin on the 17th of November and end on the 7th of December. They'll play three T20Is in a space of five days and two Test matches with three days rest in between.

Ten days after that, India will be in South Africa, playing three Tests, three ODIs and four T20Is. The three Tests will be separated by only four days of rest. The three ODIs will be held in the space of six days and the three T20Is in just eight.

The South Africa tour, which starts on the 17th of December will end on 26th, January, 2022. And guess where the Indian team will be in ten days? Back in India, to take on the West Indies at home: three ODIs and as many T20Is, all taking place within 15 days, between February 6 and February 20.

The last T20I will take place in Trivandrum, which is just a 90-minute flight from Bengaluru. Because as luck would have it, India need to be there on the 25th because Sri Lanka will hop in for a short tour of two Tests and three T20Is, which ends on the 18th of March.

Fortunately, the next tour is only scheduled to take place in June, at home for the visiting South Africans. Thank God for that. But wait...that window has been created for the IPL. Most members of the team will play 18 gruelling T20 games in that two-month period, considering the expansion of the tournament to ten teams.

South Africa will stay in India for five T20Is, from June 9 to June 19. Twelve days later, India will visit England to play the fifth Test that was cancelled this year due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the visitors' camp. They'll extend their stay by 12 more days because the visitors will also play three ODIs and as many T20Is.

From November 2021 to July 2022 - an eight-month period - India will play six Tests, nine ODIs and 21 T20 games, not counting the million IPL games without as much a breather in between.

India need to draw the line somewhere - this is simply too much cricket

India vs New Zealand - ICC World Test Championship Final: Reserve Day

Even under normal circumstances, these are a staggering number of games to play. Now with all the COVID-19 restrictions in play and the number of bio-bubbles the players will have to put up with, the schedule is almost inhuman.

Just look at Rishabh Pant, who has been playing non-stop from last year. He has been selected for the New Zealand series, and presumably will keep on playing till next year. Or someone like Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul who play every format, and don't even get this break in between like Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja.

Outgoing coach Ravi Shastri said that the 2021 schedule left the players 'physically and mentally drained'.

Everyone knows the story of the goose that lays golden eggs and gets gutted out of greed, so I will stop myself from delving into the details. The BCCI sorely needs to embrace ECB's strategy of separate teams for separate formats if they are to address the situation.

Actually, the BCCI will weather this storm even without that, but the players will not. Of course the players will play every game if they are selected, but the board has a moral responsibility not to.

There is sufficient talent in the pool of players in India to have separate teams across formats. Even if there is not, India ought not to make the same players do everything in pursuit of revenue.

The board should take it upon themselves to rotate players who have been away from their families for too long; that would be more productive for them in the longer run. Otherwise, the upcoming generation of promising cricketers will die from a thousand cuts, all of them individually trivial, but collectively enough to fell the beast.