The International Cricket Council cannot do anything about it, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India does not want to do anything about it. But the incessant, around-the-year matches are not going down too well with the players.

Despite leading his side to a win over India in Vadodara on Sunday, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting wasn’t a particularly pleased man.

Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz and Doug Bollinger — playing for New South Wales in the Champions League — joined their national teammates barely hours before the ODI.

“There’s no doubt those guys playing in the (Champions League) final hindered our preparation,” Ponting said.

The addition of Twenty20 tournaments such as the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Champions League has left the game with a very crowded calendar.

The ICC says it is helpless. “These tournaments are decided by the various cricket boards, and were not part of the Future Tours Programme as the ICC had chalked out,” an ICC official said.

The BCCI — which conceptualised the IPL and set up the Champions League together with Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa — washed its hands of the situation.

“It’s better you ask Cricket Australia this question,” was all BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty had to say.