Dhoni skips mandatory fitness tests

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The National Cricket Academy (NCA) here has been bustling with internationals over the past few weeks, thanks to the Board for Control of Cricket in India’s (BCCI) directive to its contracted players to undergo “mandatory” fitness tests ahead of a packed season, beginning with the limited-overs assignment against Sri Lanka later this month.

It is commendable that the Board summoned its players for a series of tests and as Zaheer Khan put it the other day, there was a “formal” touch to the process this time around even as the two physiotherapists at the Academy — Nitin Patel and Ashish Kaushik — monitored the show through a series of tests to eventually chalk out a fitness programme.

Different regimen has been charted out for different players, depending on the varied history of their injuries, if any, and diverse on-field workload. The 15 selected for the Lankan trip will assemble in Chennai for the preparatory camp from Monday.

Of the 30-odd players under the Board contract, those who had toured the Caribbean with the ‘A’ team recently were apparently exempted from the special tests. Meanwhile, the likes of Yuvraj Singh, S. Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron — all recovering from injuries/illness too didn’t have to make themselves available for the pre-season tests though some of them were already at the Academy undergoing rehabilitation.

Three players in the upper-crest Grade A in the contract list didn’t turn up. Harbhajan Singh has left for an Essex stint while the other two absentees — M.S. Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar — weren’t expected by even the NCA staff.

With NCA chairman M.P. Pandove insisting that there is no time-frame for the tests, Tendulkar, who has skipped the Lanka ODI series, has opted to stay away from the fitness assessment tests as well.

Age, seniority and the absence of immediate international fixtures shouldn’t be a hindrance for attending the assessment programme and Test ‘specialist’ VVS Laxman found time to visit the NCA.

But the biggest thumbs down came from Indian skipper Dhoni, certainly not the fittest in the squad, but yet he didn’t make it to the Academy.

Dhoni will join his boys in Chennai and might undergo the same tests there, but it would have sent a strong message to the others if the captain had come over to the NCA.

When asked last week about Dhoni attending the tests, BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale watered down the issue, adding that the captain “will attend at a convenient time depending on his availability.”

India should take cue from the professional set-up followed by Australia or South Africa in fitness, by ensuring that a player, irrespective of his reputation, is match fit while returning from an injury lay-off or a prolonged absence.

While the board continues to suggest that fitness tests are ‘mandatory’, it’s the stars who set the agenda. The board just turns a blind eye to them.