Players ‘short on energy’ after tough training regime

National camp enters final phase, concerns raised over practice struggles.

KARACHI: As the national cricketers return to normality with the bat and ball in hand after undergoing 20 days of an intense training regime, they are struggling to get going in practice after being frazzled out.

The month-long training camp, currently underway in Lahore, has entered its last phase as the 40 players are back on the pitch with nearly a week to go in its conclusion.

“Most of the batsmen are struggling to time their shots properly, as we haven’t played cricket at all in the last 20 days,” one of the national team players told The Express Tribune.

“The last three weeks have been so demanding that it has taken a toll on us. Our fitness levels have improved which is a good sign, but at the same time, we’re short on energy now and struggling to cope up in practice sessions. It’ll take us two to three days more to get in sync as we’ve got practice matches coming up as well.”

National Cricket Academy (NCA) head coach Mohammad Akram is heading the programme, while national selectors have also been keeping a close eye on it with central contracts to be announced after looking at the fitness of the players.

Another international player added that everyone has put a lot of effort in the camp so that they can make the final cut for central contracts and the selectors should acknowledge their hard work.

“Everyone has stretched themselves to the limit in order to prove their fitness and selectors now must do justice when the central contracts are announced,” he added.

One of the selection committee members also felt that the players should have been made to work according to their body limits instead of putting all the 40 players in the same training programme.

“All the players have different capacities to train and they should have been made to workout according to their limits after a proper analysis of their body types,” explained the selector.“It will prove to be an excellent camp, but had minor details been taken into account, it would have made it even better.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2014.

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