After Cricket SA about-turn, focus falls on players to stay fit

Cricket SA’s decision to drop its “get fit or die trying”, philosophy shifts the onus and responsibility for fitness back to the players.

It’s not a new rule, more a revision from CSA, based on input from its medical committee fitness trainers.

Naturally there’s been plenty of opinion flying around about a topic which was a heated one in local cricket circles in the last few years. 

CSA has taken a step back from making fitness standards — most controversially covering the 2km time trial in 8 min 30 sec (for men) and 9 min 30 sec for women — compulsory. Instead CSA will trust provinces and domestic coaches to ensure players adhere to fitness standards, even if they don’t meet the necessary requirements mentioned above. 

Beyond the coaches, however, it is the players who will now face the most scrutiny. Such were the deplorable fitness standards among provincial players when data was sought by CSA ahead of the T20 Challenge in Gqeberha early last year, that the organisation felt it had to make certain fitness standards mandatory.

Of course when CSA then enforced those standards and players were omitted from teams it proved controversial. The most high profile cases involved former Proteas women’s captain Dane van Niekerk and Proteas men’s seam bowler Sisanda Magala. 

Van Niekerk was left out of the squad for the T20 World Cup after missing the mark for the 2km run by 18 seconds. Such was her anger about that decision she quit international cricket. 

Magala was omitted from a Proteas squad for a series against Pakistan in 2022 and then removed from the Central Gauteng Lions squad before last season’s T20 Challenge, to the chagrin of senior officials at the union. 

Everyone in any of my teams will attest to my obsession for everyone to be better and that's applicable to fitness too

—  Proteas limited overs coach,
Rob Walter

After its training and medical conference in July, CSA has taken a more flexible outlook on those fitness standards. It’s not an about-turn. The organisation certainly made a point with the strict stance adopted in the last couple of years. 

What will be interesting is how, in particular, domestic players react? These are, in the case of the men, professional cricketers and while it should be expected that they would be able to maintain base fitness standards, the data from early last year showed that wasn’t the case. 

Too many — well more than half of the country’s domestic players, when measured for the T20 Challenge in Gqeberha — didn’t meet those basic requirements. 

Proteas limited overs coach Rob Walter, himself a former fitness coach for the national side, offered a diplomatic take about the revised requirements.    

“From my point of view, I suppose it comes down to the adage: it’s a process ... of getting guys fitter and up to standard. Everyone in any of my teams will attest to my obsession for everyone to be better and that’s applicable to fitness too,” he said. “I expect every player in my team to strive towards that and we as team management also have a responsibility to support them in those endeavours.”

Locally, a number of provincial teams are led by coaches who have experience of the international standards. 

Russell Domingo (Lions), Robin Peterson (Warriors), Justin Ontong (Boland), Salieg Nackerdien (WP) and Mandla Mashimbyi (Titans) have all worked in high performance in a different capacity and will not allow fitness standards to slip. 

The players, having seen how serious CSA was about the topic, know the onus is on them not to become lax about fitness simply because the standards are no longer compulsory. 

A tournament like the SA20, an aspirational event, as its commissioner Graeme Smith likes to put it, also won’t accept players who are unfit, even though that tournament doesn’t fall under any CSA regulations. 

If local cricketers, men and women, want to further their careers, or increase their earning potential with appearances in international leagues, they need to get fit and stay fit. The ball, to use a phrase from a different sport, is very much in the players’ court.