The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : King happy with Indian players' fitness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

King happy with Indian players' fitness

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE, JUNE 5. The Indian cricket team's fitness parameters got the nod from its trainer Gregory Allen King. "I am happy with the progress of their (players') physical standards since the last camp. That, however, does not mean there is no room for improvement. Fitness often goes up and down and it is not the same through the year. The aim is that by the time the new season begins, the players get fully fit," King said.

King arrived here on Saturday morning and got down to work immediately. He rushed to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and jotted down the training schedules for the fast bowlers camp commencing here on June 8. The camp was earlier scheduled to start on Monday, but was postponed by a day as according to King a few players had to return from overseas and needed that extra day.

The fast bowlers camp (June 8 to 12) followed by the probables' camp from June 13 to 19 will mean King will have his hands full in the coming weeks. "These camps will purely focus on the fitness aspects, while cricketing skills will be dealt with during the cricket camp in July. I will oversee these physical conditioning camps, while John Wright and Andrew Leipus will join us during the cricket camp (July 3 to 11). In these conditioning camps, I will monitor the results of their (players') off-season training programmes. I had given an off-season training chart to all the players. The camp will not be as intense as the last camp since the players have just had a long season. They have had their break and now it is time to get them back to top form," King said.

On the fitness worries of Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, King said, "Andrew Leipus (physio), who is now based in the United Kingdom, is in touch with them. Injury and rehabilitation is his area and I don't want to make a comment out of turn. But yes, according to him, they are progressing well. I am not yet sure about whether Zaheer Khan will attend the fast bowlers camp."

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