Fitness failures to be axed for West Indies  

Those players who had failed fitness tests will not be  considered for the tour of West Indies.

by Rex Clementine  

Sri Lanka Cricket will be requesting the national team management and the selection panel to strictly implement fitness guidelines for contracted players, a board official told Sunday Island. Accordingly, the four prominent players who failed the fitness test will be axed for the tour of West Indies that will take place later this month.

Of the 32 players who were tested on Friday, four failed the two kilometer run that they had to finish in eight minutes and 35 seconds.

While Kusal Janith Perera is the most high profile casualty as he features in all three formats of the game, eyebrows have been raised at the poor standards shown by opening batsman Danushka Gunathilaka. Dilruwan Perera at the age of 38 has been treated with some sort of sympathy while there have been suspicions about the fitness standards of Bhanuka Rajapaksa.

Gunathilaka had a prolific LPL and was expected to make it to Sri Lanka’s ODI and T-20 squads but now those plans will be held back. 

Avishka Fernando who had emerged as Sri Lanka’s leading opening batsman since the 2019 World Cup had skipped the fitness test due to an ankle strain and he will have to go through the fitness test again in order to be eligible for selections. Earlier, he had failed two fitness tests in the space of ten days.

Once the new selection panel is finalized, they will hold discussions with the coaching staff with the way forward on fitness issues but SLC is under pressure to show no leniency. Earlier, the board had threatened to cut down on salaries of players who fail fitness tests.

The initial idea was to test players every 40 days and repeated fitness test failures were to result in players becoming ineligible for selections.

Head Coach Mickey Arthur wasn’t present when the fitness test took place as he was recovering after testing positive for COVID-19. He is expected to rejoin training next week. While being overall happy with the outcome, Arthur is expected to be tough on those who failed the test.

“I will be having very tough conversations with the guys who are not up to scratch and won’t tolerate it,” Arthur told Sunday Island.

Arthur is credited for raising fitness standards of Pakistan players during his time with them and Grant Luden who worked as Strength and Conditioning Coach in Pakistan was roped in to SLC last month to oversee physical fitness of players.

The two kilometer run under eight minutes and 35 seconds was Luden’s brainchild and most players responded remarkably well for the challenge despite being made to do self quarantine after attending Sadeera Samarawickrama’s wedding.