With a bio-kineticist in charge of their health and fitness, South Africa’s under-24 cricketers are eating, drinking and sleeping the game
CRICKET: Ahitisham Manerjee
MIKE TYSON gently cuffed his “opponent” on the ear for the fifth or sixth time in 90 seconds and the whole pathetic, disgusting episode was over. What a joke. And amazingly the whole world was forced to read about it – – even here in Sri Lanka where boxers are people who pack the cardboard variety. And some idiots actually paid to watch it.
Back here on the island known as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean” there was another one-sided contest going on. The difference was that both combatants had the same weapons, both knew the rules and neither was prepared to take a dive in the interests of obese, First-World greed.
Sri Lanka’s under-24 cricketers also finished on the canvas after the second Test match in Kurunegala but, unlike the petrified blob of anonymous lard that hit the deck for $700 000 against Tyson, they tried to fight. Trouble was, they took a lot more punches than they could deliver.
“Outclassed” shouted the back page of one national newspaper. “Sri Lanka drubbed by South Africa” confirmed another. Despite the assistance of pre- monsoon rains that robbed the four-day match of nearly a quarter of its playing time, the visitors romped to victory by eight wickets with 12 overs remaining. Defeat certainly hurt the pride of Sri Lanka’s youth but it was more than that. Much more.
After six-and-a-half hours under a burning sun (apart from when the showers came) the local boys lay sprawled across the benches of the changeroom looking like dejected prisoners entering the second week of a hunger strike. The visitors, mockingly, stripped to the waist and played half an hour of high-paced “touch rugby”. Or they ran half a dozen laps of the ground. Or did something they call the “Bleep Test”.
“It is their discipline that gets to you,” confides Sanjiva Warusamana, scorer of a fine 117 in the drawn first Test in Colombo. “They don’t seem to tire or slow down. The bowlers are the same at the end of the day and batsmen hit the ball just as hard after five hours, and they don’t lose concentration.”
Like the Romans looking for Getafix’s secret formula, several messengers have been dispatched towards those on the periphery of the touring party with instructions to procure as many bottles of the team’s Energade Sports Drink as they can. But there is more to Asterix and Obelix than the magic potion.
This is “new age” cricket and it starts at the breakfast table and ends when you close your eyes last thing at night. Soon, though, there will be rules for sleeping too. Think about what you eat, when you eat, how you eat; and the same with drink. Carbohydrates, complex chain and simple chain, fast-twitch fibres, slow-twitch fibres, aerobic fitness, upper-body strength, percentage body fat, peanuts, beer and chocolate. Pardon? Oh yes, understand it all because your body is your temple.
The man in charge of this disciplinarian, army-style life of pain and abstinence is 26-year-old bio- kineticist Paddy Upton, himself a useful cricketer but now devoted to honing a body that women could (and do) die for and that makes even fit men feel inadequate.
A bit of a lettuce-eating bore, then?
Not in a pumping Colombo nightclub at 1am after several beers over and above the responsibility threshold. And that is the essence of the United Cricket Board of South Africa’s appointment. Upton is acutely aware that anything remotely dictatorial will rebound quicker than Tyson’s wobbly opponent did off the ring floor.
“When older guys say ‘we didn’t need any of that diet/fitness crap in my day’, they are quite right,” he says. “Because nobody bothered about it and they all played at the same standard. Now people’s attitudes have changed and it’s our job to stay ahead of the game, not just keep up. Cricketers used to play to train … now we train to play. The idea is to have the fittest cricket team at the World Cup in February next
But Upton has never issued an order in pursuit of that goal. If he did the players would have something to rebel against. His training, under the auspices of South Africa’s sports science guru, Dr Tim Noakes, has covered everything from muscle structure to psychology.
“Listen to your body,” he tells the players. “My body says it wants a bloody great steak with a pile of chips!” answers one potential rebel. “Then have it,” he answers, “but make absolutely sure that that is what your body wants.” The rebel orders grilled chicken, baked potato and salad.
Upton is a paradox. A disciplined hedonist, a meat- eating vegetarian, a wild, untamed early-to-bed man. A man without vices who revels in his vices. And he is getting results.
‘Allan Donald never lifted anything heavier than a glass of beer until eight months ago. His incredible suppleness, agility and natural bowling ability always carred him through, but he was never as effective in his third spell as he was in his first. But now, with improved upper body strength, he is bowling faster than ever, for longer periods.
“Fanie de Villiers is the proof of what a defined physique can do for a bowler. He hits the deck as hard in his fourth spell as he does with the new ball. And aerobic fitness can completely change a batsman. Running 15 singles with Jonty Rhodes is useless if you’re still panting when he calls for the 16th. The recovery time is the key.”
National coach Bob Woolmer has a rare ability among former players to not only let go of the past, but fling it aside. “In my day we used to turn up at 11 o’clock for an 11:30 start, have three cups of coffee, read the paper and then wait and see if the captain had won the toss before we bothered to get changed. It was a bloody joke. The best sides of today would annihilate the best team of the 1970s. It’s a different game today. You can’t stop progress. In fact, you should encourage it.”
And he does. Always pushing back the boundaries of both the game and the preparation for it.
Upton’s appointment has also allowed physiotherapist Craig Smith to improve, specialise and increase his vital input. He began his job nearly four years ago with little more than intuition and an excellent training to guide him. Now he is regarded as one of the best in international cricket.
With Upton taking much of the burden of preventative treatment away from Smith, the “Fiz” has spent even more time researching and perfecting the treatment of those niggles that pertain specifically to cricket. Where Sri Lanka still rely on cold sprays and plasters, South African players are treated to shock-absorbing poron inner soles, a profound understanding of muscle recovery time and a willingness to administer the best treatment at any time of day and night in anywhere from an airport departure hall to a hotel lobby.
With a coach who encourages the reverse-sweep, a fitness expert who encourages a beer or two (“it’s only carbohydrate and, besides, it can relieve a lot of stress!”) and a physio prepared to strap you up in the toilet, if necessary, it seems that South Africa are well on their way to creating the management “dream team”. And the players just can’t get enough of them.
Warusamana will bat in the third Test, which began yesterday, with all the determination, guts and technique that he can muster. A few of his team-mates are feeling a little too inadequate to offer their everything. If cricket is played in the mind, then the mental game has been won and lost as surely as Tyson and whoever-he-was. But cricket, thank goodness, is not boxing, and they will not take a dive. Cricket is better than that.