By Revatha S. Silva
Once Sri Lanka white-ball top-order batsman Bhanuka Rajapaksa was omitted from the India Twenty20 International (T20I) series on Monday (21), the cricket authorities, particularly the national selection committee, had allegedly found fault with the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) medical staff for mismanaging the health situation of the player.
Later, fans too joined them in accusing the SLC medics of being too rigid and harsh in applying their illogical and high-handed fitness tests since last year only to unsettle the careers of some useful national players.
Is the SLC medical staff mismanaging Rajapaksa, putting the batter in unnecessary fitness specimen?
“No. Those are baseless allegations. We have done all the necessary tests on Rajapaksa. We still expect him to get through those tests soon and enter the national side,” said Prof. Arjuna de Silva who heads the SLC medical team yesterday (23), talking to The Morning Sports.
Too harsh?
Rajapaksa had continuously failed his skin-fold test – a way of counting one’s body-fat level – stipulated by the SLC resulting in him missing both the Australia and India white-ball series this year.
The player had reportedly passed the 2 km-run test.
Have the medics put Rajapaksa on an unrealistic fitness criterion that he is genetically unable to meet? Also, there were arguments from some quarters, mainly on social media platforms, that, in stronger cricketing countries such as India, they do not apply such harsh skin-fold tests for its key players.
An Indian example
Such arguments indicate that in India, they apply different pass marks for different players after checking the identically different genetic formations of their bodies.
Hence is the availability of players such as Rohit Sharm and Rishabh Pant, despite looking fatter than others. These players are considered highly useful components in their batting department.
Do they apply different criteria for different players after assessing differences in their bodies? Cannot a similar method be applied in Sri Lanka, and to Rajapaksa, too?
He’d reached pass mark before
“We have done such tests on Rajapaksa, ones like the Dexa test. That’s why we say there is nothing medically wrong with him. The mere fact that Bhanuka had improved his skin-fold levels to 85 (the SLC pass mark on the test) before the very recent World Cup to enter the team then is going to throw away all such arguments,” clarified Prof. de Silva.
On Tuesday (22), there was a protest by a set of people who identified themselves as cricket fans and followers of Rajapaksa, shouting slogans against SLC officials for “unjustly hampering Rajapaksa’s career” whilst demanding his re-entry to the national side.
If Arjuna Ranatunga’s fitness was to be tested then, Sri Lanka could not have won a World Cup, said some placards displayed at that protest in front of the SLC headquarters at Maitland Place, Colombo.
A contentious issue
There is clear dissent on the current fitness tests – both the 2 km run and the skin-fold test – introduced by SLC in association with the national selectors last year. The distracters argue that these tests are resulting in unnecessarily ruining the careers of useful players in the country.
The Rajapaksa omission from both the Australia and India series turned out to be a matter of concern in the parliament as well this week, prompting Youth and Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa to clarify the situation amidst interrogations by the Opposition.
Yet protesting in front of the cricket board for a mere dropping of a single player from the national team was understood to be an overreaction by some self-proclaimed cricket lovers.
Do it or quit!
Going by the above facts, one can assume that “the ball is now on Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s court”.
He has to do it or quit!
He had in fact quit last month, only to reverse his decision barely eight days later. Still, he has a chance to improve, as he had done before, and reach the pass mark.
“A rule cannot be bent to soothe just one player,” – that eventually sums up the whole argument at the end of the day.
Was Bhanuka managed wrongly by SLC medics?
23 Feb 2022
Was Bhanuka managed wrongly by SLC medics?
23 Feb 2022
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