The Yo-Yo and Dexa tests have become the order of the day for India’s international cricketers. The Yo-Yo is about speed and recovery check conducted around plastic cones over specific distances and with variations. The Dexa tests ascertain bone health.
The tests have been put into practice from India’s tour of Sri Lanka last year and initially, the first three who did not come up to the required levels of fitness were Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Washington Sundar. Subsequently, they managed to achieve the 16.1 score on a scale of 25 and Raina and Sundar have been picked for Twenty20 internationals and a one-day international.
Recently on the basis of their low Yo-Yo scores, Sanju Samson was dropped from the India ‘A’ team tour of England, Mohammed Shami for the one-off Test against Afghanistan and Ambati Rayudu for India’s ODI series against England. Thrown out of the team would have been like a bitter pill to swallow for Rayudu, who had a glorious run for CSK in the IPL.
The Indian teams were selected on May 8 and Samson, Shami and Rayudu were told immediately that Yo-Yo tests would be conducted in early and mid-June. “Anyone who does gym-work every day would clear the 16.1 score. In Australia and New Zealand it’s a high of 19 and Pakistan has set s starting score of 17,’’ said a BCCI official.
The decision to put the players selected for Indian teams (excluding U-19) was taken by the Indian team management last year and the National Cricket Academy (NCA) also came on board. But the BCCI is not in full comprehension of the two fitness related tests. The chairman of the NCA Board, Niranjan Shah said: “We don’t know what’s going on.’’
A BCCI senior official said “no comments’’ to a particular query on the two advanced tests conducted by the support staff of the Indian team. However, the official said that the BCCI members have not been communicated about decision taken by the Indian team management and NCA.
Another BCCI official well versed with such matters said: “These are policy matters that cannot be taken independently by the BCCI. No one is against the players being asked to reach a high standard of fitness. But it’s obligatory of the BCCI to tell its members about the Yo-Yo tests before the start of the cricket season. The states will put in place a system for its Ranji Trophy teams and the cricketers will be better prepared. The Yo-Yo test scores of all the players have to be displayed on the BCCI website.’’
A person who’s understood the outcome of the Yo-Yo tests and Dexa and has closely watched it evolve in the last few months, believes that today’s international cricket is exacting and a player has to be in top fitness condition. It’s said that India’s fielding coach R.Sridhar, at 47, achieves a score of 16.
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