Fitness a pre-requisite not a luxury.

Going back just five or six years, fitness was not particularly high on cricketers to do list. Number one was technique and number two would then be net practice. Recently I read a column by former England wicket keeper Alec Stewart; in his piece he explained how when he started playing professional cricket it was just a part time job. You would finish the season in September, say goodbye to your team mates and not see each other again until April 1st.

The success of the Australian team in the 90s was largely put down to their professionalism and the way the approached the fitness side of the game. During this period Australia where one of the few teams who took the fitness side seriously, where as now every player is put through regular fitness testing.

Some would go and work in the business sector or work in the schools teaching and coaching young players, some would even sign on the dole for a few months. Others like Stewart would go abroad to play cricket. How different things are now. The issue of fitness in cricket was first thrust in to the media spotlight when Samit Patel was given an ultimatum by Coach Andy Flower; get fit or get lost. He was told in no uncertain terms you won't be playing for England again until your fitness improves, this was in 2009, at the time Hugh Morris was quoted as saying; "It's been a concern and from the India series it was made very clear by a number of different people, including Peter Moores and Kevin Pietersen originally, and then more recently Geoff Miller, and Samit was given a programme. He has been given two fitness tests and the results have not been satisfactory. The latest one was in New Zealand a few days ago,"

The scientific improvements that have been made now compared to five years ago are impressive. Through the use of motion sensors, scientists can now tell an athlete which part of their body is under the most pressure during certain movements, for example this will allow a bowler to adjust his or her action to relieve the pressure on certain joints.

In an article by Andrew Gale he explained how he likes to keep fit during the off season;

"The season finishes at the end of September so most cricketers will spend October relaxing, catching up with Family or going on holiday. I tend to go on holiday but still like to do some sort of light fitness 3 days a week just to maintain the levels.
During November and December at Yorkshire we do a lot of long distance C.V work to get the miles in the legs preparing our bodies for the ‘onslaught’ after Christmas! Personally I try to do between 20-30 miles per week running on the roads along with 2 full body weight sessions."

"After Christmas the training begins to step up. We train as a team 3 times a week which will include circuits, power lifting and hill sprints. Our fitness trainer aims to get the power and speed in to our muscles. Cricket is mainly based around short, fast movements based over a long period of time, so hill sprints is an excellent session to do to help that. During this time the players start to do skill specific training, so the batters will do 3 sessions of batting a week and bowlers will work on bowling skills."

"During the summer the schedule for a cricketer is hard to manage. You could play a 4 day Championship game followed the next day by a one day game, followed by a travelling day followed by another Championship game. Sometimes we can be away from home for up to 3 weeks, so being able to live out of hotel rooms is a key part of the job. The ways in which to maintain fitness levels during the season is to manage your time the best you can. As a batsman I will fail during some games which gives me a lot of time sat around watching others score the runs that I should of!! This time can be spent going for a run of using the gym at the grounds to keep the fitness levels up. We have a full time fitness conditioner on hand so he will devise the sessions there and then to suit our needs."

Along with the stringent fitness routines the players have to do today, they also have to do a very strict cool down exercise. This is often ignored and some people think the pictures of Andrew Flintoff holding a beer and smoking a cigar after the ashes victory of 2005 is what all cricketers do after a game. The truth couldn't be more different. The main goal is to remove the lactic acid from the muscles, and to do this ice baths are regularly used.

Even at amateur club level fitness is taken very seriously by the coaches. At the club where I play, players are often not allowed to use the nets facility until they have done their fitness training. Not only does this install discipline to ensure that all players know it needs to be done, but it gets even the oldest of players fitter for the long season ahead.