Moeen Ali has become the latest England star to hit out at the "unsustainable" schedule and warned that ODI cricket could die "in a couple of years" because it has become the "long, boring" format.
Ben Stokes notably retired from the format last month because the schedule meant he could no longer give "100% of myself in this format anymore". Since then, the likes of Joe Root and Jos Buttler have also been critical of the schedule, with Root saying it has become "very hard" to play all three formats and Buttler saying he hopes Stokes' retirement will be a "wake-up call" to the game's authorities.
Now, Moeen has also criticised the schedule, claiming it will lead to the death of ODI cricket if something does not change. "It's all over the place at the minute," he said.
"You're trying to get a couple of franchise gigs which are decent, but you're going to miss a couple of Test matches or the ODIs - that's the horrible bit, I think, because you want to play for England as much as you can.
"You don't want to be missing… I used to hate resting when I was a bit younger. At the moment it's not sustainable in my opinion.
"Something has to be done because I fear losing the 50-over format in a couple of years because it's almost like the long, boring one, if that makes sense. It's almost like you've got T20s, you've got the Test matches which are great and then the 50 overs is just in the middle - there's no importance given to it at the moment.
"So yeah, I think there's too much - personally I feel like there's too much going on. It's great in a way, because there's always cricket being played, but it should never come in the way of international cricket in my opinion."
Despite Moeen's concerns, ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice has played down fears over the future of the format. "I think at this stage there is some discussion, not specifically about ODIs, but about the mix of formats within the calendar," he said.
"Countries have been, in their FTPs, are still scheduling a healthy number of ODIs as well. So in the FTP, I don't think you'll see any significant change to the number of ODIs or the proportion of ODIs as being planned."
