Trescothick and Giles call for shorter tour schedule

Trescothick called time on his England career in his prime in 2008 after struggling for some time with a stress-related illness brought about by touring.

The Somerset captain has since chronicled his battle against the illness in an award-winning autobiography and has a rare insight into the problems suffered by Yardy, who flew home from the recent World Cup citing depression.

It came at the end of a strenuous winter schedule for England that saw a gruelling tour of Australia followed almost immediately by the intensity of a sub-continental World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Yardy was not part of the Test squad in the early part of the winter but competed in New Zealand's domestic competition to keep himself sharp.

Asked about the situation, Trescothick said: "The amount of time you spend away from your own home and your own support is slightly tough.

"It's the industry we're in and you can't ship them (your family] around everywhere with you - more often than not the kids are in school anyway so they are committed to things back home.

"The team needs a certain amount of time alone to build that bond together but you've just got to look at shorter tours and series they play. That will probably be a better approach to try and overcome these problems."

Trescothick also praised the way the England and Wales Cricket Board dealt with Yardy's revelation. "The ECB have dealt with it clearly and they knew what to do," he added. "They understand what is going, we're a little more unique than any other country having dealt with it with me."

England selector Ashley Giles believes players may be forced to take more frequent breaks from international cricket in order to cope with an increasingly demanding schedule.

Giles, who played in 54 Tests and 62 one-day internationals for his country between 1997 and 2006, feels fatigue prevented England from performing to their full potential at the recent World Cup on the sub-continent, which swiftly followed their tour of Australia.

A ten-wicket defeat to eventual runners-up Sri Lanka saw Andrew Strauss' side bow out of the competition at the quarter-final stage, having earlier suffered chastening defeats to both Ireland and Bangladesh.

England's squad was decimated by injuries as the tournament progressed, while many of those who took to the field struggled to replicate the form they had shown in their team's memorable Ashes triumph.

Giles said: "There's no doubt the guys are tired. They have played a lot of cricket.

"I think they were home for three days (between the tour of Australia and the World Cup] in five and a half months and it's not enough really.

"They were always going to be struggling and falling apart by the time of the World Cup. It would have been an amazing effort to win that as well as the Ashes.

"We want to see the best players out there on the park, but there might be a situation where we are going to have to think about rotating guys, giving them a break and doing more strength and conditioning programmes to keep them up to pace so their bodies don't fatigue too much."

Giles is well aware of the financial implications that would accompany any reduction in the number of international fixtures. "It's always a balance between the commercial demands on cricket, the money. Things in the world aren't easy at the moment and we have got a good product in cricket," he acknowledged.

"But from a selectors point of view we have got to look after our players and make sure that when they go out and perform, they can perform to their best.

"If your best players aren't available to play the big games, or if they are fatigued, it's not going to be conducive to your best performance."