Rows over scheduling have not only hit Sri Lanka newspaper headlines. Rahul Dravid has also pointed a finger at his country's board officials over what he feels are unfair demands on players.

And in deepest and now from all accounts darkest Africa, where family suggest power cuts are as erratic as those on the island, there are similar accusations over the growing farce that is the Afro/Asia series.

This Yahaluweni, if you are not aware of it, is the made for TV series promoted by India: a set of slogs designed for South Asian, but mostly Indian audiences linked to ZeeTV. It was part of a deal when Zee lost the overall rights and howled like a child robbed of its favourite playstation DVD toy.

South Africa has, say confidants, reached a point where saturation could mean rejection of the next Afro/Asia series by some players. 'It is an extra burden they (the players) can do without.' And then the warning, 'If they are not careful about their scheduling, the next side from Africa after this could be made up of a one or two of our B team and the remainder from Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Namibia. And how would Asia like that?'

What the Afro/Asia series means is that this tournament is no longer player or performance related but all about money being fed into the bank.

Indian skipper Dravid, not noted for making waves in even a paddling pool, said more recently that boards need to get their scheduling right if they don't want player burn out. You can imagine how an enthralled public will turn out to watch a combination of Kenya, Namibian, and Zimbabweans in action. That is when even the TV moguls may start asking questions about how serious are officials of this product.

As it is, it has been raining almost non-stop this past week in Bangalore and Chennai is getting its fair share of puddles as well. In December 2005, the rain-soaked first Test of Sri Lanka's series against India left most of us either waterlogged or marooned and reaching for the nearest trishaw with floats to visit such sights as 'Lake Cheapuk' venue for the game.

But as discovered on that visit, Indian spectators are often treated shabbily by the BCCI administrators. Yet there were still 8, 000 in the ground on the last day in what was a dead game.

But like the recent Abu Dhabi fiasco that Sri Lanka's players didn't really want, there are those who want the show to go on at the cost of pleasing the made for TV reality show. Information from Karachi says that Sri Lanka were in a sense short changed by Pakistan over the deal. But what about the scheduling of tournaments in temperatures hot enough to bake tandoori chicken without the need to light the fires?

Whatever the background to the tournament, selection panel convener Ashantha de Mel had every right to question the scheduling of the Abu Dhabi series. One story was that it was programmed last December; the second was that it came after Pakistan exited early from the Caribbean tournament. Interesting how stories change.

Anyway, Graeme Smith, if emails from South Africa are accurate, might yet lead the African side as his recovery from a knee operation is going according to the fitness programme. Unlike Asia, none of the African team members are about to quit. But the players association has let it be known that scheduling is now causing a problem or two with player’s fitness levels.

As we know, Chaminda Vaas is a tough nut. It is about a week since he was carted off to hospital on a stretcher in a concussed state. But it wasn't his dazed state of mind either that made him give the Asian selectors a reverse V-salute on his return to the Lord's dressing room the next day.

Vaasie was merely doing what a South African selector and a good friend of mine suggested was needed. He was telling both the Asia Cricket Council and the Africa Cricket Association that the scheduling of the second edition of Afro/Asia the series is all wrong.

Now it doesn't need anyone to tell us what a pretty good sort is Vaas as a left-arm swing bowler: he smiles instead of scowling at an umpire when he knows an lbw decision should have been given in his favour. Why moan; shrug the shoulders and get on with it. But the feeling is that players have reached the stage where they feel the need to turn their back on such needless peripheral events.

The point here is that there were sixty-four days during the past year when teams were tied up in tournaments organised by the International Cricket Council. There are a further fourteen days in September when the twenty/20 slog is being held in South Africa, despite possible power cuts.

During 2006, Sri Lanka were involved in 11 Tests and 57 limited overs games that amounted to about 112 days; during the same period India played 14 Tests and 43 slogs, or 113 days of on-field activity; Australia were involved in 11 Tests and 53 slogs for 108 days of play; and South Africa had 15 Tests and 39 slogs for 114 days. And let us not forget the abandoned Unitech triangular that would have added to the playing schedule.

Dravid says the ideal is 10 or 11 Tests and 35 slogs in a year. No says the board. We'll make the decisions that include the extras outside the future tour programme schedule. Australia consult their players, so do New Zealand, England and South Africa, about the additional games they are likely to play.

This includes the three ICC circus events that are designed to fund the globalisation programme and the extra money boards raise for their own programming and player payments. And now there is Latit Modi, BCCI vice-president who comes up with the suggestion that as the 'show has to go on,' players are expendable.

It was more or less a challenge that Dravid should remember that if he still wants to remain as captain or a contracted player to toe the line. Strong words, but it could lead to pressure. India though are becoming a touring troupe with acts in Ireland, England, South Africa, at home and in Australia between now and March next year.

Forgotten is that players are subject to jetlag and other factors that add problems to fitness and performance related factors. Teams need to settle into a tour and not be rushed, as have the West Indies on this tour of England.

Sri Lanka have not played a Test since their New Zealand tour almost six months ago and with Bangladesh arriving after the Afro/Asia slogs, it will be interesting to see how the SLC handles the issue of some form of fitting in pre-Test first-class games.

Now, in the days when the stripy bacon and egg tie and pink gin brigade ran the game from fusty committee rooms at Lord's, it was for some a more orderly world. The panjandrums of the Marylebone Cricket Club also metaphorically switched hats to haphazardly organise its international wing under the guise of the Imperial Cricket Conference. It is why there is this misnomer that Lord's is the home of the game and not some other corner of a foreign field, such as Melbourne, Kolkata or Bridgetown.

Despite its firm establishment roots, a private club running an international sport was always going to present an anachronistic problem to modernists and despite India's valid complaint in 1929 of South Africa's segregated team selection policies, carried on regardless.

But, as Tony Lewis, former England captain and MCC president, author and one of the modernists pointed out in the early 1990s, globalisation needed to be carefully handled if the game needed to tackle the contemporary challenges. It was in need of refocusing its aims.

This was about the time when the ICC's post-MCC secretariat was formed in 1993 and moved into their new headquarters under the clock tower at Lord's.

Now the MCC's cricket committee has reminded the ICC of its role and why the players' international body, Federation of International Cricket Associations have been grumbling since at least the 1999 World Cup: the international calendar has become too cluttered.

Criticism of the ICC or their surrogate committees handling of events such as the World Cup and Champions Trophy tournaments was going to surface at some stage after this last CWC fiasco in the West Indies. There has been no monitoring either of extra series that are not part of the official tours programme.

There were grumbles after CWC03 in South Africa about reducing the length of the tournament. If that was a concern, one look at the super eights schedule in February was scary. And a long-time colleague said such was the fatigue he experienced in having to island hop he needed as long to recover.

The overburdened schedules, in part, chased Brian Lara and Nathan Astle into retirement and there is going to come a time when others are going to pick and chose which form of the game they want to play.

The idea is to play it for enjoyment and get as much fun out of the camaraderie as there is to be found at such levels of competitiveness.

But when recurring injuries threaten players' their livelihood, it is time to question when a cap can be placed on adding yet another slogs series, or one off game to the growing list.