Virat Kohli warns cricket boards against player burnout

Since the bio-bubble concept was adapted, cricket boards, especially the richer ones like India, Australia and England, are trying to push more and more cricket, leaving the players in a very busy schedule. Case in point, the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 started just a day after the IPL final and many players didn't really have any downtime between two marquee events. Add to that the quarantine regulations and bio-bubble, players might start to pull out of tours.

Virat Kohli warned the cricket boards to take a hard look at that and stated players also have to be spoken to before a schedule is announced.

"We've spoken a lot about this [bubble life]. The good thing is we've played a tournament like the IPL. Every day you have a new challenge in front of you. The tournament builds up and you are working towards a goal. Similarly, the World Cup too brings the same motivation, you are playing a multi-national event, you are playing against various teams - some of them you've never gotten a chance to play against. These things allow you to keep the focus," Kohli said ahead of India's T20 World Cup opener, against Pakistan. 

"But going forward, I understand we've lost some time without cricket but in trying to cover that up, if you lose players then world cricket is not going to be better off. So there has to be a balance in the future. Players also have to be spoken to. In a bio-bubble, you can't say which player is in what situation. Just because five-six players are laughing around, doesn't mean all the 15-16 are feeling the same. It's important to have communication with players and give them a period where they can mentally refresh themselves and come into such an environment once more to compete."

The final match of the ongoing T20 World Cup will be played on November 14 while India will lock horns with a visiting New Zealand side for the first T20I in Jaipur on November 17. That series will be followed by three ODIs and two Test matches.