West Indies captain Kieron Pollard was not impressed with his team’s approach to maintaining fitness levels. He added that it is frustrating to see a lack of maintenance of fitness levels preventing the West Indies from fielding their top team. Pollard is coming back from a hamstring injury to captain West Indies during the ODI against Ireland. The first ODI will be held at Sabina Park from Saturday.
“It’s a problem that has plagued us for a few years. One way to look at it is the selection policy, the fitness policies are there. The guys know exactly what it takes to represent the Caribbean team. Sometimes, as individuals, we take it for granted. Yes, sometimes that gets in the way of the process of selecting the best players at the available time, “Pollard said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
The West Indies do not have the services of left-hander Shimron Hetmyer, who was not selected because he did not meet the required fitness standards. “Things happened during the pandemic – security reasons – all of that played a part. But fitness was an issue that affected us in terms of trying to put our best team together and sometimes that’s frustrating because you don’t have the fit and available guys to represent the team, ”Pollard added.
Pollard urged his teammates to take fitness seriously, citing himself as an example. “I will also say that it’s an individual thing, they are supposed to take pride in being fit, performing and doing what is necessary for the team. When these things tend to happen, as an individual , I’m sure that’s not the case. bodes well for us too. “
“Again, this is something that I take very personally – the physical form – and the fact that I can’t participate because of an injury – because it’s not going very well with myself. J So I had the opportunity to take a detour and recover and hopefully I can stay with the team because I’m proud of it. “
Failure to meet the minimum fitness criteria was one of the reasons for Sunil Narine’s exclusion from the West Indies T20 World Cup squad, despite the spinner doing well for them. Kolkata Knight Riders in the second half of IPL 2021 in the UAE. For now, Pollard wants his teammates to take care of their fitness on and off tour as well.
“For me as an individual the best I can do is try to make guys understand the importance of fitness. When we are on tour I can safely say that he does there’s no problem with when the guys have to do their thing in terms of what’s required for the team and when they have to train in the schedules. We tend to have these conversations, but I think the hard part is when the guys go on tour with responsibilities and instructions and sometimes they just don’t follow. “
“And then they come back on tour and they start from scratch. From my perspective, I can send a message and post it in a band. We’re supposed to be professionals and we’re supposed to be adults and be proud of ourselves. on that. “
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