‘Will not tolerate lapses in fitness’ – SLC to deduct salaries of players if they fail to clear fitness test

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has put forth their new guidelines for their contracted players to make sure that the cricketers stay focussed on keeping fitness as a priority. Earlier this year, SLC introduced a two kilometre-run fitness test and the cricketers were needed to complete the run in eight minutes and 35 seconds.

Later, following the Cricket Advisory Committee’s request, time was increased to eight minutes and 55 seconds. Going by the new rules and regulations, the players now need to clear the test in eight minutes and 10 seconds. The Sri Lankan board will also deduct the salaries of the ones, who fail to clear the test.

Moreover, if a cricketer takes more than eight minutes and 55 seconds to complete the run, he won’t be considered for selection in the national team. Pramodya Wickremasinghe, Sri Lanka Cricket’s Chairman of Selectors, put forth the developments.

Sri Lanka Cricket introduces challenging rules

“If a player ran the 2km in 8.35 minutes in February, he should be able to do it under 8.10 minutes now. We want the players to really work hard on their fitness and we will not tolerate lapses in fitness,” Wickremasinghe was quoted as saying, Sportskeeda reported.

“Besides the fitness test, we will also test their skills, to see whether they are ready to play,” Wickremasinghe, also a former Lankan fast bowler, added.

He also lauded the Lankan cricketers for putting enough emphasis on fitness, but also talked about working on the same in the future as well. The first fitness test is set to be conducted on January 7, 2022.

Sri Lanka recently beat West Indies in the two-match Test series, played at the Galle International Stadium. Prior to that, they also performed well in the T20 World Cup 2021, although they failed to go beyond the Super 12 of the tournament.

The likes of Charith Asalanka, Wanindu Hasaranga and Ramesh Mendis have performed exceptionally for them over the last few months. The Lankans are next set to lock horns with Australia in a five-match T20I series in February 2022. Thereafter, the Islanders will play two Tests and three T20Is against India on the latter’s backyard.