Kumble ready to talk to Vengsarkar on fitness issue

Indian coach Anil Kumble didn’t appear too impressed with Dilip Vengsarkar’s comments that too much gym time was resulting in a spate of injuries to the players.

 The head coach of the Indian team even offered to sit down with Vengsarkar, who is also the director of the Bengaluru-based National Cricket Academy, along with his rest of the support staff and have a chat to clear the air. 

“I don’t know, I am not really sure, I saw the report,” said Kumble when asked about Mumbaikar’s remarks.

“All I can say is that the fitness parameters of the current Indian team are the best that they have ever been. I have played in the 90s where fitness and strength conditioning was a personal choice and not a team choice. In the 2000s, the culture changed and you could see the difference of a team in the 2000s and now it is part and parcel of modern cricket,” he explained.

The former ace leg-spinner then went on to invite Vengasarkar for a chat.

“I am sure it is a personal opinion but as a coach and also as the current member of Indian coaching staff, and along with the strength and conditioning coach plus the physio, we are happy to sit and clarify because Dilip is someone whom we really respect and he also holds a very responsible position as the director of the National Cricket Academy. And I think it is important that since we are in Mumbai, we definitely won’t mind to sit and have a chat because in modern day cricket injuries are part and parcel of the game.”

 Kumble also pointed out that most of the injuries were cricketing.

“The injuries that we had are hamstring injuries, which are very common not just in cricket but in any sport and it has all been cricketing injuries. Unfortunately, Hardik (Pandya) got injured in the nets when he got hit by a ball, Rahul got hit while fielding at short leg, (Murali) Vijay got hit when he was batting and so did Shikhar (Dhawan). It is something that we got to live with but the good part is that the Indian team has really stood up and the people who have come in have contributed to the success of the team,” he observed.