‘Not fair to say catches were dropped due to fitness issues’
Bangladesh’s fielding has been lacklustre during the recent tour of Sri Lanka and before that in England at the World Cup. Critical errors in the field have cost them matches and dropped catches raised questions about the overall fitness of the side. Fitness and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan was however skeptical of the argument.
The Sri Lankan claimed that dropped catches cannot simply be blamed on lack of fitness. “I cannot say that’s the reason or this is the reason [for fielding failures]. It is not fair to say that someone dropped the catch because of fitness,” Mario said.
The Tigers have started a four-day fitness and conditioning camp under Mario today. The team looks to get back into the flow of things with fitness test and Mario said that the current fitness status of the team was ‘satisfactory’.
“We are doing the fitness test after eight months because we have been playing non-stop cricket since October,” he said.
The fitness test gave Mario an idea of the fitness status of the team after a short break in proceedings following the Sri Lanka series. Bangladesh have been plagued by a series of injuries in recent months.
“So again, for me and for the players to find out where they are and how we need to push them in the next coming months. In terms of where they are, satisfied, but not happy. And it’s understandable because we have not done fitness camp for eight months. So it’s natural, they are not at their best but not bad. I am happy in that sense,” he added.
While ODI skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza is part of the fitness and conditioning camp, he did not undergo fitness test as there are no ODIs within the next six months.
“We have not got any ODI cricket till next year. So I do not see any reason he should be doing fitness test now when we have one-day cricket in after six months. So we will start work with him in the future,” Mario concluded.
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