Fitness has been the talk of the town, more so now than even since the 2021 T20 World Cup. Cricket West Indies’ minimum fitness requirement for the yo-yo test is level 40, and certainly some of the players that were present at the T20 World Cup could not make that minimum requirement.
Some Guyanese players in a recent fitness Test
This is where the medical exemptions come into play.
These exemptions would have allowed certain players to represent the West Indies. Former West Indies batting coach Toby Radford has described this fitness testing as inconsistent and as an excuse for certain players to be selected and others not to be selected.
“I do not think there is a consistency with the fitness testing and the way it has been used. It seems to me (that) if they want to pick a player, they give a wavier to a certain player, if they do not want to pick a certain player, they give the excuse that the guy is not fit,” Radford disclosed on Tuesday’s Mason and Guest radio programme.
After the T20 World Cup squad was selected, the former Lead Selector of the West Indies men’s team, Roger Harper, disclosed that the likes of Sherfane Rutherford, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Sunil Narine and Odean Smith failed to meet CWI fitness standards. Despite that statement, those players played cricket in various T20 leagues around the world, their participation raising the eyebrows of the general public in relation to their fitness.
Former West Indies batting coach Toby Radford has said there is no proof that these players had done the fitness test. “And there is no proof of when the test was done, or how it was done. I hear a lot of different stories, and I am in touch with some players. I do not think it is about consistency, if they want to get a player in, they waive the fitness test, and if they don’t want to get a player in, they blame the fitness test and use that as an excuse.”
The Englishman has suggested that everyone should be tested at the same time in order for there to be fairness. “I don’t think it is a hard and consistent method for selecting and non-selecting. We have seen, with the T20 World Cup, (that) there were people (that went to the World Cup) that did not past the fitness test. I would like to see an above-board, robust selection process. If you are going to use fitness, you have to be consistent with it. Everyone has to be treated the same way, tested the same way. At the moment, it has been used to (select) whoever they (CWI) want to select,” Radford said.
According to CWI Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams, there are four reasons why exemptions are granted to players. “One is age, one is training history, one is injury history, and one has to do with physiological issues; and in any one of those four areas, exceptions might be granted to players.”
