Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has issued a stark warning about the future of cricket, claiming the rise of franchise tournaments around the world and the busy international schedule means players will "break away from international cricket completely".
Ben Stokes recently announced his retirement from ODI cricket, labelling England's schedule "unsustainable". Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders chief executive Venky Mysore has revealed the group, which also owns three other T20 franchises around the world, wants to sign top players to 12-month contracts.
And Pietersen believes many players would go down that route as they are "being worked into the ground at the moment" and that by 2025 "only the major nations will ever play Test cricket". In his latest column for Betway, Pietersen said: "That would be a game-changer.
