Kieron Pollard disappointed on fitness issues in West Indies camp ahead of Ireland series

West Indies players are regarded as one of the fittest athletes in world cricket. But, it is not the reality and West Indies captain Kieron Pollard is really upset over this. Shimron Hetmyer was ruled out of the upcoming series against Ireland because he didn’t meet the required fitness standards set by Cricket West Indies.

Pollard would be returning to the West Indies setup after missing the last series against Pakistan due to a hamstring injury. He declared himself fit enough to lead the side but stressed the fact that the fitness issue has affected the team in the last couple of years.

“One way to look at it is, the selection policy, the fitness policies are there. Guys know exactly what is needed to represent the West Indian team. Sometimes, as individuals, we take it for granted. Yes, sometimes it hinders the process of selecting the best players at the given available time,” Pollard said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

“Things happened during the pandemic – security reasons – all these played a factor. But fitness has been one issue that has affected us in terms of trying to put our best team and sometimes, it’s frustrating because you don’t have the guys fit and available to represent the team,” Pollard added.

They are supposed to pride themselves on being fit: Kieron Pollard

Pollard also mentioned that he takes the issue of fitness very personally and thinks that players should take pride in themselves on being fit. He also added that he himself takes care of every individual’s fitness when the team is on a tour. But, the players don’t follow the instructions properly once they are back from a tour and it creates a massive issue.

“I will also say that it’s an individual thing, they are supposed to pride themselves on being fit, performing, and doing what is necessary for the team. When these things tend to happen, as an individual, I am sure it doesn’t bode well to us too. Again, this is something I take very personally – fitness – and me being not able to participate because of injury – because that doesn’t go too well with myself. Hence I got an opportunity to detour and recover and hopefully, I can stay with the team because I pride myself on that.”

“When we are on tour, I can safely say there is no issue as to when the guys have to do their stuff in terms of what is required for the team and when they have to train in schedules. We tend to have these conversations, but I think the difficult part is when the guys leave from tour with responsibilities and with instructions and, sometimes, they don’t follow it. And then they come back on tour and they start from ground zero,” he concluded.