Tim May, FICA's chief executive, told reporters that the move "not only conflicts with volume and scheduling restraints that the ICC adopted as principles in the construction of the new six-year cycle, but appears to fly in the face of concerns expressed previously by the ICC's president and CEO".

He warned of the increasing dangers of player burnout. May's unease stems from the volume of cricket being played, and there are so many series that there are often no periods between them to allow players to rest. Recently, Sri Lanka returned home from a punishing VB Series in Australia and flew straight to Bangladesh for another series there. Next month, Australia finish their Test and ODI campaign in Australia and within three days of the end of the Johannesburg Test they are due to play an ODI in Bangladesh.

In 2004, Malcolm Speed, the ICC's chief executive, warned that "we have come very close to saturation point in terms of the volume of cricket, not only in a commercial sense, but also in respect of the demands it is placing on international cricketers." Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, also stated when he took office that there were issues regarding the amount of cricket being played.

May said that although the ICC had introduced principles around which the FTP would be built, "these have been largely ignored in the final program".

He continued: "Instead of easing player workloads, the ICC program commits more matches to be played at the Champions Trophy, more Full Member matches against Associate Countries , a further international [Twenty20] competition, regular Twenty20 matches on a bilateral basis and allows countries to fill in any other downtime that players may enjoy with series loosely tagged as 'icon series'.

It is likely that FICA will now consult its members before deciding on its next course of action.