Tim: We may see drug use by over-worked cricketers

In a move which could either be termed as posturing, prophetic or dropping a hint that someone he knows is doing shady things, Tim May, Chief Executive of the rather grandiosely named Federation of International Cricketers' Associations, and Australia's second best off-spinner, ever(!), has blasted the ICC's revamped Future Tours Programme and warned everyone to the real possibility of international cricketers taking to drugs as a means of recovering from the huge amount of cricket they played.

You only have to look at the doping record in baseball to see that recovery, not enhanced power, is the motivation for most drug misuse. The more we push our players the more they might look at options.

Maybe, just maybe, Shane Warne's about to make a comeback!

He pointed out that the few stars in world cricket are in danger of dropping to their knees, knackered from playing continuously.

There are five or six guys in the five leading sides in the world who play Tests and ODIs and they are being flogged. They are the ones who make the difference between a 10,000 crowd and a sell-out, they are the ones who the broadcasters and commercial partners pay for. They are exhausted and they are not going to take much more.

It is no-one's argument that there is too little cricket. But I've always been of the belief that international cricketers are [typically] mature enough to realize when they're overworking themselves. They have the option of saying 'No' to meaningless games, retiring, working with their boards to ensure proper rest periods etc. Some, like Irfan Pathan, get rested for the first test of a series.

If the boards do so without considering the players' needs, players, especially those five or six guys who can draw sell-out crowds, have many ways of forcing boards to toe the line. Tim May's statement is an irresponsible one. There is absolutely no excuse for sportspeople taking recourse to banned drugs/substances, whether it is in the context of vanity, performance abuse or recovery.

Food for thought: Why doesn't FICA have a website of its own? Given that Sri Lanka's cricketers don't recognize FICA as their representative, why do they have Murali's image on the site?