Mark Butcher has labelled the County Championship schedule "horrendous", with seven rounds of fixtures set to take place in consecutive weeks through April and May before England's first Test of the summer.
Butcher feels the quick turnaround in those early rounds will make it difficult for sides to "play the same XI" and the weather conditions will affect the quality of the pitches. He also highlighted recent comments from Stuart Broad about the schedule, with the England seamer citing his own concerns.
"I mean [the schedule] it's horrendous, it's horrendous in a lot of ways really," Butcher said on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast. "What have we got, four rounds in April, and another three in May?
"No team is going to be able to play the same XI, you would imagine, each time, with only three-and-a-half days between matches. Pitches are going to be an issue, obviously. It's been snowing all week.
"They are not going to be conducive to lots of different types of cricket; run-making can actually be easier sometimes when it’s freezing cold because the ball doesn’t do anything, the bowlers find it difficult to find any sort of movement. But the pitches are going to be slow and all the usual problems that you have when playing first-class cricket at this time of the year [will be there]."
In his recent column for the Mail on Sunday, Broad explained that he would not be featuring for Nottinghamshire in their season opener in a bid to "maximise form, fitness and preparation" as he looks to win back his England spot. With England set to play seven Test matches this summer, Broad admitted that heading into such a busy schedule "seven Championship matches deep" is "the last thing I want".
He wrote: "I do not currently hold an England shirt but if I want to be in the first Test XI of summer 2022 — and I desperately do — the last thing I want is to be heading to Lord's to take on New Zealand on June 2, seven Championship matches deep with the potential for carrying a niggle or feeling tired and heavy legs.
"Four back-to-back Test matches to start England's home summer — three against New Zealand plus the rearranged one against India — will require every ounce of fitness and so I'm trying to make sure I am in peak condition for June. If I started on April 7 and played solidly for eight weeks, I would not be, and so I have identified fixtures to play to maximise form, fitness and preparation."
And Butcher believes Broad is spot on with his comments, suggesting that players involved with England need to "take time off to be ready to play those Test matches". He added: "Stuart is absolutely right.
"If your plan is to be involved in the Test matches, as they begin in the back-end of May, beginning of June, then the last thing you want to do is be playing seven consecutive Championship matches in the run-up. You’ve got to try and hedge your bets a little bit as to where you need to get yourself in order to take time off to be ready to play those Test matches."
