May 20: Cricket sport requires lot of fitness and players must follow all rules and regulations set by respective boards and team managements to get match fit. South Africa has their own bench marks and fitness baselines to find out if a player is fit enough to play an international match.

South Africa men’s national cricket team conditioning coach Tumi Masekela shared fitness regulations for players in an interview with Betway, Masekela said that he likes to see a player playing warm-up matches, practice games before making return to international cricket after recovering from injuries.

“I use fitness baselines to determine whether a player is ready or not. But if he’s at a good level then we will start him with our warm-up games or franchise games before we move back onto the international scene. That’s definite – we will not allow a player back to an international game without playing any games beforehand, so that we can evaluate their match fitness.”

Tumi Masekela also mentioned that conditions play vital role as well. Cricketers play in different climates and conditions which make their job difficult to maintain fitness regularly. Proteas players participate in different leagues like IPL, CPL and PSL which are hosted in different conditions.

“It goes without saying that acclimatising to conditions is a big factor. If you’re going to play in different conditions, particularly when it’s hotter in the subcontinent, you need to give yourself enough time to adapt and perform at peak levels,” coach added further.

“That makes it even more difficult for the guys coming back from injury to hit their targets, but that’s why their baselines before injury are so important. If they’re trying to rush themselves, I can show them how far off the mark they are.

So cricketers must follow the fitness baseline set by South African team management and conditioning coach.