Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath head a list of cricketers who must be managed responsibly through the hectic next eight months, Australian captain Ricky Ponting said yesterday, as Cricket Australia put the finishing touches to a one-day tournament that will add up to five games to the calendar.
Ponting lately has stayed up late watching England click into something approaching its best form ahead of the Ashes.
He naturally wants his best, and busiest, players to be at their peak for the summer and the World Cup defence that follows, and ideally to win the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time beforehand.
This will place a heavy load on Gilchrist, with his wicketkeeping and batting duties in both forms of the game, and McGrath, whose comeback path is still debated among selectors.
Before any of that, the team goes to Singapore and Malaysia for a warm-up series against India and the West Indies. Australia will play four games, with the possibility of a final.
Asked about Gilchrist's workload yesterday, Ponting said: "We've got to look at a lot of our players, to tell the truth, and make sure we are managing them as well as we can.
"With a couple of one-day tournaments coming up in the next couple of months before our summer, we've got to look at that, what's going to be best for the preparation for a lot of our players.
"It's about us sitting down with the players and having a really good honest discussion with them and mapping out the best preparation possible," added Ponting, who was speaking at a business breakfast organised by Stride Sports Management, where he is a director.
There are likely to be a couple of weeks between the Singapore and Malaysia series and the Champions Trophy, during which there could be a chance to squeeze in some first-class cricket in Australia. The selectors have not yet decided whether to send an identical squad to both.
"There are three trophies coming that we are really hoping to win — the Champions Trophy, the Ashes and the World Cup. We are a taking a helicopter view of that and there are a lot of issues we need to consider," a Cricket Australia spokesman said.
Ponting suggested McGrath might get his way in touring India instead of accumulating overs with NSW leading into the summer, after an off-season spent supporting his wife, Jane, through her treatment for cancer.
"His back-up, whenever he's returned from having bowled in India, he's bowled very well in Australia, so that's a bit of his thinking. To get over in those conditions and get some good hard solid bowling under his belt will be good for him," Ponting said.
"The other side of it is if he stays here and plays two or three four-day games, he probably gets even more bowling under his belt in conditions we're going to be playing in. You've got to show a lot of trust in the players … If Glenn wants to go, I think everyone will find it hard to tell him not to."
McGrath, typically, has been quick to nominate England's Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook as his likely targets for the summer, but Ponting warned against becoming too caught up in the hysteria.
"I think it's a bit of a danger that we all get a little bit too wound up in the series. But Glenn and Shane (Warne) have made a habit of doing that over the years, of putting themselves under extra pressure, and I think it actually brings the best out in them."
- CHLOE SALTAU