Fitness in cricket is becoming an illusion?
Long way back (about a decade ago) when I was in India, I used to train with many cricketers who were younger than me. The reason being I took a chance after my graduation to pursue cricket, which is entirely a different story. So training with such players who were displaying more energy and vibrancy than me, I started noticing something. Players were getting more motivated through fitness which I believe was due to the transitioning period of Indian cricket from one of the most skillful to one of the most fittest team in the world. It was an obvious trend thanks to Dhoni, Kohli, Jadeja and many other players who were setting the standards high. So even I and my cricket friend started doing what we needed to do to become more fitter. Our fitness was not that organised but was consistent and we did our best within our capacity. Alas, still we couldn’t make it to our dream team #india.
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After so many years when my cricketing tenure got over i observed this unusual trend, where many young cricketers are now hitting the gym at an early stage. Even my then young cricket colleague now became a hulk from stick. I noticed that the drive of becoming fitter consumed him so much that now subconsciously now he is comfortable being the product of social media than a struggling cricketer. If we actually see cricket and observe what we really need in this game, it is temperament, decent fitness to crack the test, and mental preparation. So what players are doing more often these days, they try to be fit, then they feel progress, they become obsessed in getting more fitter, but the ultimate distraction starts then. Try becoming someone who gets attention through a fit body not cricket skills. Then they console themselves that they tried hard.
Hard truth from my perspective is trying your best in cricket includes balance of fitness, attitude, skills and determination. Here fit cricketing generation might be getting lost by directing all those balancing forces to just one obsession which is to get noticed through your fitness which is entirely irrelevant in cricket. Hence, to play cricket just stay fit, improvise skills and most importantly have fun which you will only have if you do whatever it takes to perform better in every game. Here ‘whatever’ I believe is a lot more than just best looking for body, isn’t it ?
