Fitness tests aimed to rule out repeat of Fitness dramas and embarassing situations
Fitnessu00a0tests aimedu00a0to rule out repeatu00a0of Fitness dramas and embarassing situations
There have been several instances of injured players being picked for tournaments, even important ones sometimes, and then having to go through the embarrassment of defending their selection is not uncommon for the cash-rich Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
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India middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh arrives for the fitness test at the Bandra-Kurla Complex yesterday. pic/Sameer Markande |
Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan travelled with the Indian team during the T20 World Cup in England despite nursing injuries.
It seems BCCI has had enough of going through such awkward situations. Even top players will now have to prove their fitness before a team for the Champions Trophy is finalised.
Just a day after a few national cricketers underwent a fitness Test in New Delhi, another set of players, eight to be precise, went through the same at the Mumbai Cricket Association's Bandra-Kurla Complex facility yesterday.
"It's been two good days. The purpose of it (fitness test) was to meet up with the guys while they got some time off. We made a decision in West Indies to get together. That's one area we feel that we can work on as a team. We wanted to do a series of assessments and obviously this was the first one," India coach Gary Kirsten said after the session.
It was learnt that Kirsten and his support staff had given each player a workout plan for the break and wanted to assess whether the players were following it.
Indeed, BCCI's attempt to make sure every player who is in contention for a berth in the team is passed fit before the selectors meet on August 16 in Chennai, is an encouraging one.u00a0
"This was one way of assessing the players' fitness levels. We are going to monitor it on a regular basis from now on," BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Prof Ratnakar Shetty told MiD DAY yesterday.
While 16 players were assessed over the last two days, all the fringe players have just returned from the Emerging Players' tournament in Australia.
