Sri Lanka Cricket Introduces New Norms; To Cut Salary If Players Don't Adhere To Fitness Guidelines

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has introduced a new rule stating that the players will now have to maintain their fitness levels if they want to be considered for selection in the national team.

They have also decided to slash players’ salaries if their fitness is seen as under-par. Earlier, in February 2021, SLC adopted the ‘2 KM Run Fitness Test’ to check the fitness levels of its players. They needed to run 2kms in 8 mins and 35 secs, which was changed to 8 mins and 55 secs before finally coming down to 8 mins and 10 secs.

“If a player ran the 2km in 8.35 minutes in February, he should be able to do it under 8.10 minutes now. We want the players to really work hard on their fitness and we will not tolerate lapses in fitness. Besides the fitness test, we will also test their skills, to see whether they are ready to play,” SLC chairman of selectors, Pramodya Wickremasinghe was quoted as saying by The Sunday Times.

We don’t want any complacency when it comes to fitness – Sri Lanka Cricket

The first of the four fitness tests is scheduled to be held on January 7. Every player that has signed the new contract with SLC will have to take the mandatory test. Having come this far in terms of fitness, Wickremasinghe doesn’t want the players to start slacking.

“We have improved a lot in the past few months and we want them to improve it further in order to be more competitive. We don’t want any complacency from players when it comes to fitness. We need them to improve every passing day and this is why we have set new benchmarks,” Wickremasinghe added.

Sri Lanka has slowly begun improving in all formats. They performed well in the T20 World Cup and recently defeated West Indies 2-0 at home in the Test series.

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