Trevor Bayliss bats for cancellation of T20 matches from international calendar

02/19/2018

After failing to make it to the final of the Trans-Tasman tri-series, England head coach Trevor Bayliss has asked for T20I games to be scrapped from the international calendar. He also suggested that the T20 format should be left for domestic competitions to avoid fixture congestion.

In the last match of the double round robin tournament between England and New Zealand, the Europeans put up a target of 195 for the home team after batting first but the Kiwis required just 175 runs to qualify for the final. Even though England won the game, they couldn't stop the hosts from scoring 192 runs in the second innings to which coach Trevor Bayliss and co. a place in the final. After the loss, the England head coach said that the T20 format should be removed from the international calendar so as to avoid burnout.

The modern day cricket comes really thick and fast and tends to put up a burden on the players and coaches due to the fixture congestion as the teams nowadays tend to play all the three formats in the shorter span of time. Trevor Bayliss who had coached various teams across all formats with the likes of Sri Lanka, New South Wales, Sydney Sixers, Kolkata Knight Riders suggested that the T20 games should be restricted just to the domestic competitions like the IPL and BBL.

"I wouldn't play T20 internationals, I'd just let the franchises play," Bayliss told Sky Sports.

“If we continue putting on so many games there'll be a certain amount of blowout, not just players but coaches as well."

He even went to suggest that if the ICC were interested in playing a World T20 every four years they could just fit in the games in a six month period before the actual tournament start date.

"If you want to play a World Cup every four years or whatever it is, maybe six months before you get the international teams and let them play some T20 internationals,” said the 55-year-old.

England will now face NZ in an ODI series followed by a Test series scheduled to start on February 25. To this Bayliss has said that coaching all three formats is a tedious job for the coaches on tours like these and require specialists for the various formats. He said it made sense to split coaching duties between different formats.

"If you go to a swimming tournament you've got 1500m specialists and 100m specialists. I think it's definitely the way it's heading, not just with the players," he explained.

Trevor Bayliss had announced last month that he will quit the job of the head coach of the England team once his contract ends next year.