International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO Haroon Lorgat has said that the sport's governing body should not cop all the blame over scheduling woes and added that member nations must be mindful of fixturing overkill and player burn-out.
The ICC's requirement is that sides play every other side in two series over four years, one home and one away.
"All of us are responsible for the scheduling, because it's such an integrated model you can't lay blame at one place and not the other," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Lorgat, as saying.
"So when you say it's unfair the ICC has got the blame, perhaps it's an accurate statement. Every one of us who sits down and looks at the schedule should take responsibility for it," Lorgat added.
Lorgat nominated scheduling as the biggest issue confronting cricket, and said the ICC was close to signing off on a new future tours program, that will set out the fixturing from 2012-2020.
But players like Australian allrounder James Hopes feel there is little that can be done to ease the scheduling issue.
"It is what it is and you can say that we play too much cricket, but if you tell one of our players you're going to miss a game against the Poms at Lord's I'm pretty sure they're not going to say okay," he said.
"They're going to jump out of their skin to be playing that game."
Hopes felt the effects of a busy summer for Australia and Queensland at the end of last season, but during the winter rested and got himself fitter while the Test players were in England.
Losing seven kilograms has him feeling better equipped to handle the heavy workload.
"It just makes it easier to recover between games," he said.
