- It’s commonly understood that any competitive sporting endeavour is always accompanied by a tremendous amount of physical and mental duress while pursuing it as a professional career. As everything around us has evolved over the years, the sporting disciplines and the science/medicine aspect associated with every professional sport too have metamorphosed commensurate with the modern-day requirements. Even as professional sports become more competitive, cut-throat, cutting-edge, and entertaining on the back of humongous revenue being poured into it, packaged as wholesome entertainment for the paying consumers/patrons, the emphasis on players’ peak physical conditioning too has undergone palpable alterations. Or is it?
PC: Deccan Herald
- We Indians know how passionately cricket is pursued and followed across the country. The sheer reach, popularity, and following of cricket in India have earned it the moniker of a religion here. Rightly so. Now, people closely following the fortunes of the Indian cricket team would have noticed how some of the young cricketers are often finding themselves sidelined owing to frequent injuries and breakdowns. This must concern the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials, selectors, and team management, as the frequent absence of established cricketers directly affects continuity and performance from one series to the next. Mind you, the whole game plan of the team goes for a toss is an understatement.
PC: NDTV Sports
- Note that the BCCI has heavily invested in sprucing up the cricketing infrastructure in the country by not only creating amazing facilities for quality players to realise their true potential but also offering more than adequate financial incentives to pursue the sport as a professional career. Little wonder that every other kid in the country wishes to become a professional cricketer representing the country internationally. However, frequent injuries to some of the most talented cricketers, like all-rounders Hardik Pandya, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, and Nitish Kumar Reddy, have severely dented the team’s planning and prospects. And we also have a special player like pacer Jasprit Bumrah finding himself sidelined owing to one or the other injury, especially to his knees.
PC: InsideSport
- The moot point to ponder over here is why these earmarked players are breaking down without having a decent enough run to further the cause of the team. Ask the almost injury-free career of a player of the caliber of Kapil Dev as to what made him continue to ply his trade without ever getting sidelined owing to an injury; the answer would be to maintain game fitness, endurance, and athleticism rather than gym-oriented strength building/conditioning that the modern players extensively indulge in. Don’t forget, we also have workload management to help the cricketers avoid burnout owing to round-the-year playing. The cash-rich IPL is unavoidable for most cricketers. The priority of representing Team India would be a game changer.
