Hi-tech regime for Tigers

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim goes through a high-tech fitness test at the indoor facilities of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. Photo: Star

After a month of diversions, cricket was finally back on the agenda at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday as the Tigers started a fitness camp. The fitness levels of Bangladesh's preliminary squad for New Zealand were put into test at the Mirpur Indoor Stadium on the first day of the camp with the newly bought training device -- the Speed Light Gate (SLG), proving the centre of attraction.
The device, bought last month for 20,000 Australian dollars (apprx Tk 16 lakh), is primarily used for fielding tests and measures power and fatigue and numerous other fitness-related attributes.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) physical performance manager Stuart Karppinen, who was crunching down the numbers on his laptop while the players were completing a range of tests, stated that the newly-bought device would help 'figure out a player's baseline on different fitness measures.'
“What we are trying to do is profile them based on fitness levels,” said Karppinen. “The players have got different strengths and weaknesses. We are assessing them to give us an idea of the areas we actually need to work on,” said Karppinen.
The tests involved different sessions. In the first, the players were required to run in between the light-gates, which measured a player's acceleration and speed. Secondly, they performed vertical jumps and finally they repeated that exercise on an electrical mat. Each activity was to measure a different attribute of the player's fitness.
“95 per cent of the time fielders run less than 30 meters on the field at a go. We want to work on a player's speed in short distances and that's how the light-gates were placed,” said Karppinen. The jumps on the other hand measured a player's propensity for fatigue and the amount of power they produced on landing.
“The important thing is to measure performance. If a player comes in and we suspect that he is down on performance, we will have baseline measurements and a consistent point of reference, to be able to say that these are the types of fitness and conditioning that you need to work on and these are the reasons why,” said Karppinen. Getting to that point of reference however, would take at least three months, the Australian claimed.
According to head coach Shane Jurgensen, Mushfiqur Rahim and Nasir Hossain were the best performers on day one.