Certainly cheapens it: Hussey on India-Australia T20Is just after World Cup

Australian great Michael Hussey believes the five-match T20I series against India soon after the World Cup had devalued the game, adding that cricket overkill was making players “physically” and “mentally” tiring.

Just four days after Australia lifted the ODI World Cup in Ahmedabad and defeated India on November 19, the teams were set to play the first T20I in Visakhapatnam on November 23.

“I definitely feel this T20 series has been devalued. It doesn’t make the World Cup cheaper, but it certainly makes this series cheaper,” Hussey, who has more than 12,000 international runs across the three formats, told Sen Radio on Wednesday.

With six Australian players returning home after the third T20I in Guwahati to prepare for the upcoming Test series against Pakistan, or to take a break, Hussey felt this was certainly not the best side competing against the hosts .

“There would be a number of guys who were at the World Cup (for both countries) and would probably be in their T20 teams. They came home to prepare for a Test series or just to take a break.

“This is certainly not the best Australian T20 team taking on the best Indian T20 team,” he claimed.

Suryakumar Yadav is the only player in the current team who is part of the Indian World Cup squad.

Hussey also expressed his fears about the amount of cricket being played these days.

“It’s just amazing how many cricket boards there are on a calendar to play that much cricket. It’s physically and mentally impossible to play all the tournaments that are going on,” he said.

After the huge success of the World Cup, Hussey said ODIs should feature more on the international schedule.

“I may be in the minority here, but I think (ODI cricket) is a great game. It suits so many different types of players (and) over the course of the 100 overs the better team is more likely to get there on top of.

“The last World Cup was a great advertisement for the game. There was an incredible amount of cricket played. There were a number of stories that came out (about the World Cup) that will continue for another 100 years,” he added.