The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reintroduced the Yo-Yo test as one of the parameters to assess a player’s fitness. It’s a test which is designed by Danish sports scientist Dr Jens Bangsbo and was used to optimise training and improve endurance. The likes of Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey and Hardik Pandya secured top scores in the test, setting the benchmark higher for the entire. It was mandatory since 2016 but was scrapped when the Covid pandemic hit the world. However, the Indian cricket board has decided to incorporate it once again, along with DEXA scans, to monitor the fitness of the Indian players.
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BCCI’s decision hasn’t been welcomed by several former cricketers and one of them is batting legend Sunil Gavaskar. The ex-India captain slammed the, citing his own example to make his case. In his latest column for Mid-Day, he opined that cricket fitness should be the main parameter to judge a player.
“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.
“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 wrote in his column.
“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.
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Not only Gavaskar but legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev has also spoken about it in the past. In one of his statements about the Yo-Yo test, the 1983 World Cup-winning captain had said that the likes of Kumble, Laxman and Ganguly may or may not have cleared this test but they emerged as the greats of the game.
“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 Dev had said in 2018.
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