ECB chairman Giles Clarke believes rotation "is a part of sport"

England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke wants players to be given breaks because of the demands of the international cricket schedule.

"We have had feedback from players that there are times when they need a rest," Clarke told BBC Sport.

"Rotation is a part of sport. If you go and watch any Premier League football match, there's a lot of rotation."

Interview: ECB chairman Giles Clarke

With the advent of new competitions like the ICC World Twenty20 and the need to fulfil obligations under the International Cricket Council's Future Tours programme, national boards are under pressure to squeeze more and more fixtures into an already packed calendar.

But former England bowler Angus Fraser does not believe that rotating players is fair in the paying public.

"It is not something that I want to see," Fraser told BBC Sport.

"I don't think it is a good idea. I was a member of the Schofield review group that looked into English cricket and we recommended there was a reduction in the volume of cricket played.

"That seems to have been poo-pooed by Mr Clarke and a way round it is to rotate players - you try telling that to someone who has paid �100 to watch Kevin Pietersen play and is told on the morning of the match that he is not playing today."

606: DEBATE Is rotation a good thing for English cricket?

Clarke said that the ECB face a difficult balancing act and that "specialists" could in future be used for the different forms of international cricket.

Ultimately, however, the decision rests with the selectors.

"There is a wide variety of standards in international cricket and we do need to blood young players but we don't want to blood them necessarily in, for example, a third Test against Australia when they've never bowled a ball.

"It is the selectors' judgement, not mine, to decide what the best team is," he said.

The issue of player burn-out has been highlighted by the fate of the various members England's 2005 Ashes-winning squad.

Ashley Giles has been forced to retire because of persistent hip problems, Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff have all suffered long-term injuries and Marcus Trescothick has opted out of international cricket for a year because of a stress-related illness.

Last year, fast bowler Steve Harmison was quoted as saying: "People have got to understand we are not robots."

Trescothick's England career is on hold due to a stress-related illness

And earlier this month, Richard Bevan, the outgoing chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association criticised administrators and the media pundits who "dismiss the very notion of burn-out and wilfully ignore or downplay the problem as if it is just the gripe of a few overpaid prima donnas searching for a reason for a run of poor form".

In a separate interview for the Wisden Cricketer magazine, meanwhile, Clarke has revealed the ECB were considering selling TV rights for domestic competitions overseas.

"We are now in negotiations with two broadcasters in other parts of the world just for the Twenty20 Cup and the Pro40," he said.