Date:09/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/09/stories/2007060905981700.htm

Sport

Batsmen's fitness camp starts today

Principal Correspondent

Bangalore: Barely two weeks after registering an innings and 239-run victory over Bangladesh in the second Test at Mirpur on May 27, the Indian cricketers are staring at a gruelling calendar.

India will play a three-match ODI series against South Africa at Ireland in July before playing three Tests and seven one-day internationals in England.

The journey does not end there, as India will go to South Africa for the Twenty20 World Cup in September. The players then get back home and play a seven-match one-day series against Australia and a full-fledged series with Pakistan and after all that, they will fly to Australia for a tilt at Ricky Ponting's men.

Concern for fitness

Understandably, fitness will be a key concern as our cricketers scuttle across different time zones and live out of suitcases.

The bowlers' fitness camp just concluded at Mysore on Friday and now it is time for the batsmen to get a bit of work done on their muscles and tendons for the packed season ahead.

The fitness camp for batsmen will commence at the National Cricket Academy on Saturday morning with trainer Gregory King supervising the training schedules.

The four-day camp till June 12, features 15 batsmen including two wicket-keepers — M.S. Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik.

However with Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni busy playing for the Asian XI in the Afro-Asia Cup matches at Chennai on Saturday and Sunday, the quartet may participate only in the last two days of the camp.

Skipper Rahul Dravid and Robin Uthappa will join with their batting colleagues while Robin Singh, India's fielding coach, is also expected to reach the NCA on Saturday morning.

Contract's issue

Attention will also be riveted on the contracts-issue as the BCCI's top-brass are all set to discuss it with the senior players here on June 11.

The players for the camp: Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Wasim Jaffer, V.V.S. Laxman, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, M.S. Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Mohd Kaif, S. Badrinath and Yuvraj Singh.