The three-match ODI series between England and Australia has been slammed as "meaningless cricket" by Steve Harmison, with Jos Buttler's side falling to a comprehensive 3-0 defeat.
The series started just four days after England lifted the T20 World Cup and they clearly struggled with the quick turnaround, with nine members of their squad featuring in the World Cup campaign.
Vice-captain Moeen Ali called the scheduling "horrible" before the series began and England slumped to heavy defeats in all three games. And with attendances hugely disappointing, only 4,524 fans turned up to the 100,000 seater MCG for the final ODI, Harmison has labelled the series "meaningless".
Speaking on BT Sport, the former England quick said: "Our best players didn't play in the games, four World Cup winners didn't play in the first game, the two spin bowlers didn't play in the last game and the captain didn't play in the second one.
"So from that point of view, [it's been] meaningless cricket played in a meaningless way. [It was] fulfilling the fixtures, that's all it did. Australia had to perform because they were poor at the World Cup. They didn't qualify for [the knockout stage] of the World Cup.
"Their supporters didn't turn up, England vs New Zealand got a bigger crowd in Brisbane than Australia did so that tells you the cricket loving fans of Australia weren't really loving Australia as a team, so they had to turn up and perform."
Buttler also took aim at the schedule in an interview with BBC Test Match Special, stating it does not allow England players to feature regularly in all three formats. He also urged the ICC to spread out their tournaments more.
There have been back-to-back T20 World Cups in 2021 and 2022 and the tournament is now set to take place every other year with the next one scheduled for 2024. England will defend their 50-over World Cup in 2023, with the Champions Trophy also set to be held in 2025 meaning an ICC tournament is scheduled to happen every year until 2031.
"It was always going to be a tough series for us coming off the back of the World Cup but it was just a few games too far," Buttler said. "Fair play to Australia, they have outplayed us. It was always going to be tough whether we made the World Cup final or not.
"The landscape of cricket has changed dramatically over the last few years, and we're in a different time. I think lots of people are talking about how to keep bilateral cricket relevant and this series is a good example of how not to do it.
"One of the biggest things is having overlapping series. We've got a group of players preparing for a Test series in Pakistan and we've got another group playing here at the same time. In the New Year a Test match finishes one day, and an ODI series against Bangladesh starts the next.
"I feel a bit for the players to be honest, the ones who are young and coming into the game at the moment, you want to play all formats but I don't think the schedule allows you to. I just think they need to take care of it, keep it all relevant. Maybe the ICC tournaments could be a bit more spread out, makes them more special when they do come around."
Even Australia opener David Warner was critical of the schedule, admitting: "It has been a long couple of months for the England boys, especially when you've been on a high that they had. Yes, you're still playing international cricket but it's one of those things, you ride a wave of emotion.
"It's extremely difficult on the emotional side of things, you have to put all your time and effort in to one format and for us it's Tests. Obviously the World Cup, a lot of people put a lot of energy into that, but everyone's trying to conserve their energy for the Tests really.
"England are preparing for their Tests against Pakistan, India are in New Zealand. We understand there's still a lot of catching up happening because of Covid, but I think we definitely have to be mindful of it."
