World Cup run-up: Saga of injuries

When the World Cup begins in the Caribbean on March 13, a whole line-up of leading players might turn up doped to the gills, using their surprisingly coincidental ‘injuries’ as pretexts to tank up on drugs that might otherwise face sanction

By Norris Pritam

Guess who will be the most sought-after when the cricket World Cup begins in the Caribbean on March 13? No, not the sensational batsman Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara, or even a legend like Vivian Richards. If the pre-Cup injury list is any indication, it will be the orthopaedists and physiotherapists who will hog most of the attention. Barely two weeks before the biggest competition in global cricket, some of the top players are still nursing their injuries and are unsure of playing in the Cup. Without exception, the top eight teams have one or more players with broken limbs. The nature of sport notwithstanding, it is amazing that, barely days before the competition, so many players are injured and have yet found a place in their national sides.

Imagine injured players in World Cup football or World Athletics Championship! If an injury phenomenon of this nature had taken place before a major championship in any other sport, there would have been talk of doping-related incidents. Generally speaking, sportspersons do complain of injuries before major championships in order to use them as an excuse to take certain drugs. These drugs are actually muscle-building agents. But, because a particular player has reported injured, she or he is not caught for doping. Perhaps in times to come, stricter dope testing in cricket will reveal the truth. Or maybe proper and strict testing at the current World Cup can give startling results.

Injuries do occur in sport, especially at the international level. But these are mostly accidental. For instance, a slide tackle in football can result in a knee ligament tear; or a boxer can get a nasty punch on the jaw to send him out of action for a couple of weeks. But most of the “injured” World Cup-bound cricketers have had injuries that could have been prevented with proper training and physical care.

Former top Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne has criticised the training methods of Australia's coach, John Buchanan. According to Warne, a heavy training workload before the World Cup has resulted in several Australian players on the sidelines. “If you are playing international cricket, all you want to do is feel fresh and happy—you don't want to be training into the ground,” Warne said. Buchanan, on the other hand, defended himself, saying that the training was necessary to get the players to peak fitness for the World Cup.

Both Warne and Buchanan are right. You do need a fresh and happy mind before a major competition like the World Cup. But what Buchanan was trying was also in the scheme of things. A heavy training schedule with carbohydrate loading and then tapering off just before the competition is a popular peaking technique with physical trainers. But such techniques are not magic potions: a player has to be fit to undertake such training loads.

Current international players have hardly any time to train. They are always in competition mode. According to Dr M Jagathesan, a well-known sports medicine expert and a former Asian champion sprinter, “Either ICC [International Cricket Council] should curtail competitions or players [should] avoid some series. Otherwise, more and more players will become injury-prone.” According to Jagathesan, top cricketers around the world need better trainers rather than cricketing experts. “To perform well and retain skill, you also need [to be in] an excellent physical condition,” he says.

Mainly, the pace bowlers were prone to injuries before the World Cup. Australian Brett Lee was even ruled out for the Cup. Like Shane Warne, Pakistani captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has blamed “gruelling” training schedules for their taking a toll on the players. There have also been doubts about the fitness of key Pakistani bowlers Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul. India had its share of injured players. Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan and even Sachin Tendulkar have suffered some injury or the other. But why are cricketers prone to frequent injuries? The answer lies in the lack of well-planned year-round scientific training. And this, in turn, devolves upon the lack of proper training at the grassroots level. Cricket coaching academics and coaching centres do not lay emphasis on physical training. Some crowded academies that charge huge amounts from budding cricketers do not even have a playing ground. Hundreds of children come and attend the “nets” and aspire to become Sachin Tendulkar or Sourav Ganguly. But they don’t get the right training.

While there is no doubt that cricket is a game where skill is important, even some top players fail to realise that to execute skill, you need the right body—especially now, when the game has become a year-round business and you have to have a 100 per cent fit physique: otherwise, injuries will occur. Shoaib Akhtar, Inzam-ul-Haq and Umar Gul have excellent skill, but if only they had physical fitness to match, their careers would have been longer and injury-free. And the paying public would not have been deprived from seeing their favourite stars in action at the World Cup.