‘Fitness is an individual thing’ – Former India Cricketer not happy with Indian management’s decision to reintroduce Yo-Yo Tests
When the Indian Cricket Board met in Mumbai to review the 20-20 World Cup debacle in Australia and build a roadmap for the future, they reintroduced the yo-yo test along with Dexa scans to keep track of the fitness levels of the players. The test was first introduced in 2016 and then was discarded when the pandemic struck in 2019.
Former players have slammed the Indian Cricket Board’s ruling including the likes of Sunil Gavaskar who talked about his example. In his column that he wrote for Mid Day, he talked about how cricket fitness and not physical fitness should be the main criterion to judge a player. He said cricketing fitness and skill should be given more emphasis and first- hand preference.
“Many years back, when this physical fitness fad had started, we had two former teammates who had retired and now were the managers of the team for different series that season. Gavaskar mentioned in the column and talked about how there was no prime emphasis on fitness and that fitness was given importance in the later stages of his career.
There is no one size that fits all in fitness – Sunil Gavaskar
“Ever since I have been a schoolboy cricketer, I have suffered from a condition called shin splits where doing even a couple of laps of ground would make the muscles around the shin seize up and make it painful to walk. I told them to drop me if they were going to pick the eleven based on who ran most,” Gavaskar said in Mid-Day.
“Fitness is an individual thing and there is no such thing as one size fits all. Quick bowlers need a different level than spinners, wicket-keepers need an even higher level, and batters perhaps the least. Cricket fitness should be the prime consideration,” he added. Kapil Dev also echoed Gavaskar’s thoughts and said the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble would not have had the best physical fitness but their cricketing acumen was amazing.
“Sunil Gavaskar may not have enjoyed running more than 15 minutes as a part of his fitness drill but he could bat for three days. Even the likes of Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman and Sourav Gangly may or may not have cleared this version of the Yo-Yo test but they turned out to be some of the best players India has produced. Even football legend Diego Maradona wasn’t the fastest runner but whenever he had the ball, he was the fastest. Similarly, every cricketer has a different way of responding to fitness drills,” Kapil added.
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