England legend criticises Ashes schedule and issues "difficult" Anderson warning

03 February 2023 , 12:32

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Steve Harmison has criticised the Ashes schedule, with the series taking place across just 46 days (Image: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

England legend Steve Harmison has criticised the schedule for this summer's Ashes series, with all five Tests crammed into a 46-day window.

The highly-anticipated series will begin on June 16 at Edgbaston and is due to end just six weeks later on July 31 at the Oval, with the third edition of The Hundred getting underway the very next day.

And Harmison believes that with white-ball cricket now "condensing Test cricket", England will find it "very difficult" to get the best out of "prized asset" James Anderson, along with express quicks Mark Wood and Jofra Archer.

Speaking to OnlineCricketBetting, Harmison warned: "The shorter format is condensing Test cricket. It's making it harder for fast bowlers to be fast bowlers because one of the best cricketers of all time, probably England's best cricketer of all time and is still going to be our prized asset when it comes to the Ashes, and we've got to get this 40-year-old through five Test matches in six weeks.

"It's going to be very very difficult. The shorter format of the game is making it very very difficult for fast bowlers. The two bowlers that England need, especially having five test matches in a short time, is Mark Wood and Jofra Archer.

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"I'm not sure they can play all five so they'll have to be managed very well and that is a consequence of white-ball cricket dominance and shorter format tournaments and the Ashes being condensed in such a short period of time but this is the world we live in, the financial rewards is propping the game up so if that has to be the case, then so be it.

Harmison believes the schedule means England will find it "very difficult" to get the best out of "prized asset" James Anderson (Philip Brown/Popperfoto/Popperfoto via Getty Images)

The women's Ashes will also get underway one week after the men's, with England set to play their first ever five-day Test at home after their last four, which were all four-day Tests, ended in draws.

"A [five-day] Test match is just fantastic, it's brilliant," Harmison added. "It's what the next step in women's cricket is going to be. For the game to grow off the back of The Hundred, I think it will grow off the back of Test matches and playing multi-format cricket.

"If it's on TV, young girls will be taking it in and trying to emulate what they're seeing and making sure that women's cricket is strong throughout the next three to five and ten year plan that hopefully see women's cricket evolve into more Test matches and nations getting stronger for the competition to get better. Fingers crossed, it's small steps but huge in the way that women's cricket is growing."

Matthew Cooper