The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had made it mandatory at the start of the last home season for all the players in the country to prove a basic level of their aerobic endurance for selection to the national team. And the IPL has taken the mandate on board too with four of the eight franchises having already made their players undergo the yo-yo test in the lead-up to the 2018 edition of the event.
Mumbai Indians recently concluded their yo-yo tests at their cricket ground in the outskirts of Mumbai whereas other franchises who too have made it mandatory for their players include Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals. Perhaps it’s a sign of the IPL franchises following the diktat of the BCCI which states that failure to meet the mandatory fitness parameters would result in a player making way for a fitter player, even if a cricketer happens to be injury-free and in form.
At the Mumbai Indians camp, players were given 14.5 seconds to complete each level of the yo-yo test, starting from level 5, which basically means a distance of 200 m altogether between the cones kept 20 m apart from each other. The Indian Express spoke to players from all four IPL franchises and found out that at RCB, few of the players had to do the yo-yo and get their lung power tested as soon as they were picked in the auction.
“The teams now want their players to match up to the standards adopted by international teams around the world. India now has made the yo-yo test mandatory, so it’s natural to see some of the IPL teams follow suit. It’s good to see where each player stands in terms of their fitness levels how much work the support staff needs to put in behind the scenes with them,” said one member of an IPL team.
