BCCI's U-turn: Plans to reinstate this rule which started when Kohli was skipper

 BCCI's U-turn: Plans to reinstate this rule which started when Kohli was skipper, the poor run of the players compelled it

The board was relatively understanding regarding the players because most of them were on a tour. It reduced its focus to the prevention of the occurrence of injuries. Some players have taken this lightly.

The Indian team, especially after Gautam Gambhir became a coach of the Indian team, there has not been a very good performance. The quality of the players and the caliber of Team India have compelled the BCCI to make stringent measures. The board is said to be interested in a return to the fitness tests which were in practice when Kohli was the captain. The board had done away with the compulsory Yo-Yo fitness test because of the load and tract of the players. But now there is a report that the rule may be reinvented.

BCCI now wants to target fitness criteria.

The BCCI medical team has reportedly been told to go back to fitness criteria for selection instead of protecting players from injuries arising from the crammed calendar as per a report on the Times of India. Earlier, the Yo-Yo test mandate was abolished by the previous team management to avoid injuries, but now the board could reverse the decision.

People thought that the relaxation in rules is a joke

In the report, it states: “The board had been lenient towards the players as they were mostly on travel.” Thus, the focus had become only on injury prevention. This has been lightly by some players. There is an opinion that some fitness criteria have to be re-implemented to prevent the players from getting too relaxed." It is reported that the BCCI wants to make few more changes in the functioning of the team and this may well include restrictions on the duration of stay of the family members and wives of the players.

The board created some more rules to get back to form.

Board officials opined that it is useful to have no family during matches in other countries because they can interfere with the players. Besides this, BCCI has come up with another new feature where all the players have been required to fly together. This change has been done with some players in mind who have been traveling separately in the past years, while the main idea is to stay united in the team. The board believes that travelling separately is not good for team spirit and discipline of the team.

What is the Yo-Yo test?

●The Yo-Yo test is similar to the beep test where the players have beeping sound to encourage them when they are Half way done. It is an ongoing test in which one has to run from one set to another set. 

●The separation between the two sets is 20 metres. This is about the size of a cricket pitch. 

In this, the players need to move from the first set and then move back to the second set and then from second set to the first set. 

●When this distance is reached, a shuttle is said to be done.

●The test begins from the fifth level. They do this up to the 23rd level.

●I have been able to observe that after each shuttle the running time keeps on reducing as the distance does not reduce at any one instance.

●Indian players are required to achieve 16.5 out of 23 in the Yo-Yo test. 

Who invented the Yo-Yo test?

Physiologist from Denmark, Dr Jens Bangsbo came up with Intermittent Recovery Test (Yo-Yo test) back in 1990’s. The test was first prescribed to footballers to enhance their general fitness and aerobic power. Slowly and methodically the Yo-Yo test was introduced across other sports.

At what time the Yo-Yo test was inducted for the Indian cricket team?

India’s strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu, who is no longer with the team, introduced the Yo-Yo test in the Indian team before the Sri Lanka tour in 2017.