Once more, our man in cosmopolitan downtown London, The Tooting Trumpet, enlightens the folk at 99.94 with his unique brand of sensible and critical analysis. This week he contemplates the effort and time our cricketing representatives have to spend to earn a not too insignificant crust.

A generation after Kerry Packer shook cricket to its foundations with World Series Cricket, the grand old game stands once more peering at a map of the future unsure of which road to take. The traditionalists counsel the road that moves through familiar territory with perhaps a few more brightly lit towns than we are used to: the entrepreneurs point to a destination that looks more like the Vegas Strip - all garish neon and money, money, money. But their road doesn’t look fully constructed and, like the Vegas Strip, their destination appears to be surrounded by desert. Only one thing is certain - staying put is not an option.

So, with the IPL due to start this month, it seems opportune to look at how much work a cricketer delivers in return for their pre-IPL era remuneration. Of course, contracts and playing schedules vary around the world and an exhaustive study is beyond the scope of this blog (though perhaps not this one). My analysis of the workload of an English county pro reveals a demanding, but not punitive, schedule for all but the fastest of fast men (and they don’t play county cricket).

Below I present Australia’s captain-elect and IPL refusenik (for understandable family reasons) Michael Clarke’s workload in the period April 1 2007 - March 31 2008.

MONTH	DAYS PLAYED	OVERS AT CREASE	OVERS IN FIELD	OVERS ON GROUND
APRIL	6	74.3	235.1	309.4
MAY	0	0	0	0
JUNE	0	0	0	0
JULY	0	0	0	0
AUGUST	0	0	0	0
SEPTEMBER	3	0.5	59.1	60
OCTOBER	10	33.5	251.3	285.2
NOVEMBER	10	135.4	367	502.4
DECEMBER	7	85.2	235.5	321.1
JANUARY	14	148.2	631	779.2
FEBRUARY	8	140.4	337.5	478.3
MARCH	7	44.2	244.2	288.4
TOTAL	65	663.3	2361.5	3025.2

From this table, The Trumpet suggests that one of Australia’s most heavily worked cricketers is still able to get significant periods of time away from the game. Moreover, and this is the key issue for me, even what appears to be fairly intensive periods of cricket do not require extended time in the middle.

For example the closing three weeks of the World Cup in April 2007 (above) comprised six matches in 21 days, but entailed only 74.3 overs batting, 17 overs bowling and 235.1 overs in the field. Naturally, much of the spare time is spent practising (Clarke is Australian, not English, after all).

The Trumpet does concede that back-to-back Test matches are demanding, but outside of those, I tend to agree with the players who have signed to the IPL (and ICL). They can play more cricket.

Nesta’s Note: Toot’s supplied a far more extensive table of Pup Clarke’s cricketing year than would fit on this skinny page. If you’d like to peruse the full statistical analysis email 99.94 with a subject line that says “Stats Please” and it will be promptly and politely placed in your inbox.

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