Johannesburg – Proteas fitness and conditioning coach, Greg King, is satisfied with the results from the fitness and assessment camp held this week at the Centre of Excellence in Pretoria.
The tests had given the management a good indication of player fitness levels according to King, ahead of the new season. South Africa will tour Sri Lanka to play three One Day Internationals and two Test matches in July.
“It was also important for us to get standardised targets of the players in the system, which makes it easier to work from during the season,” said King.
“I'm very happy with the results, the guys put in a lot of work during the IPL, which has shown.
“Luckily I was over there with them so I was able to monitor them and to do a few assessments with the squad members. The last two days have worked out well for us and we are on good track.”
Acclimatising to the conditions in Sri Lanka would be challenging, said King.
“It's probably going to be one of the big areas that we are going to struggle with given the current conditions in South Africa, so we need to try and get the guys as fit as possible and make sure that they are well prepared before we get there.”
The players were put through their paces during an intensive schedule with intricate physical strength assessment, measuring of body fat and general conditioning tests.
Another encouraging sign for the Proteas management is an injury-free squad, with Lonwabo Tsotsobe (ankle surgery) and Rory Kleinveldt (knee injury) making steady progress from their respective injuries.
“Lonwabo has made a good recovery post-op and is on track to being fully fit ahead of the tour to Zimbabwe, while Rory should start bowling in the next few weeks and will most likely tour with the South Africa “A” squad to Australia in August,” said Proteas Team Manager, Mohammed Moosajee. – Sapa