The Indian Cricket Board has reinstated the Yo-Yo test as one of the criteria for determining a player’s fitness. It’s a test that was created and used to optimise training and endurance. The top scorers in the test included Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, and Hardik Pandya, raising the bar for the entire team.
It had been mandatory since 2016, but it was repealed when the Covid pandemic struck the world. However, the Indian cricket board has decided to reintroduce it, along with DEXA scans, to track the fitness of Indian players. Several former cricketers, including batting legend Sunil Gavaskar, have criticised the board’s decision.
The former India captain slammed the, using his own example to back up his point. In his most recent column for Mid-Day, he argued that cricket fitness should be the primary criterion for evaluating 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,” he wrote.
“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.
Every cricketer has a different way of responding to fitness drills: Kapil Dev
Not only Gavaskar, but legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev, has previously spoken about it. The 1983 World Cup-winning captain stated in one of his statements about the Yo-Yo test that players like Kumble, Laxman, and Ganguly may or may not have passed the test, but they emerged as 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.
