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Is high fitness standards hurting cricketers?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12V1U5vbsDopTmfrZhv_evJAmDtVSscoSmrotUJ4kIao/edit?usp=sharing

Is high fitness standards hurting cricketers?

By: Shazeen Ifamy

A fit team of eleven (11) players can be the difference between winning and losing. Fit players mean there are fewer chances of them getting inquired and there are higher chances of them performing better. However, don’t mistake my title, I am certainly not against high fitness standards but with everything going on off-field in regards to Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s dropping from the team due to a failure in the skin fold test, one has to wonder if high fitness standards are hurting players and their careers? Well, many will have different options to my question.

So what is a skin fold test? Well, it is basically a measurement technique used to estimate how much fat is on the body (What is this skin fold test? 2022). So basically Bhanuka has more fat in his body than what is allowed. However, Bhanuka Rajapaksa did pass the 2-km run according to an article I read by the “Dailymirror”. So we have to ask ourselves what is Sri Lanka’s main fitness test? Cause if the 2-km run is the main test and if a player pass that shouldn’t he be selected? Hypothetically, Bhanuka passed the 2-km run because he was fit. So, if he failed the skin fold test how did he pass the 2-km run if the skin fold is used to measure fitness then Bhakuna isn’t fit and technically shouldn’t have passed the 2-km run. Well, there is no point in being hypothetical here cause it’s too late to change anything.

In conclusion, I believe Sri Lanka cricket should get its act together and give a clear picture of the fitness levels expected by the players. Cause maybe a player with a strike rate of 136.17 (Bhanuka Rajapaksa Profile and biography, stats, records, averages, photos, and videos) in T20I’s might have made a difference. Well, what do I know, let’s let our experts in SLC decide what’s better for the team overly high fitness standards or fit good players?

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