Team Management Will Decide if Yo-Yo Test Results are to be Made Public: Vinod Rai

Baidurjo Bhose |Cricketnext | Updated: June 28, 2018, 2:10 PM IST

Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli. (AP Image)

New Delhi: The much-talked about Yo-Yo test and the mystery around it continues to simmer. More than the effectiveness of the test, it is the lack of transparency around the conduct of the tests that has had not just pundits, but also senior BCCI officials questioning the mandate behind making it compulsory for all national players. There have been calls to make the results of the test public to the process more transparent.

However, speaking to CricketNext, Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai made it clear that it was for the team management to decide if the results of the tests taken by the players should be made public or not.

“See, that is for the team management to decide if they wish to release the results of the test conducted on the players,” Rai said. “It is not my domain and I don’t wish to get into that.”

Interestingly, while India coach Ravi Shastri made it clear to the media on the eve of the team’s departure to England that the Yo-Yo test is here to stay, the Committee of Administrators took note of a letter from treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and on Wednesday had a presentation from General Manager Cricket Operations Saba Karim on how the test functions and its effectiveness in assessing the fitness of cricketers.

As reported earlier by CricketNext, Chaudhry had written to the CoA asking them on the turn of events that led to the Yo-Yo test becoming a compulsion in team selection.

“At which forum was the decision taken to have a minimum score on the Yo-yo test as a prerequisite for selection into a BCCI selected team? Who all were present in the meeting that decided this? Have minutes been recorded of the said meeting? If the player has had an increased workload in the past few weeks and is somewhat fatigued, would he not be scoring less on the recovery tests?” Chaudhry questioned in the mail.

Replying to the query on whether the CoA was happy with the presentation from Karim, Rai said: “It wasn’t really a presentation. It was an internal discussion and not something I wish to talk about.”

In the pre-departure conference, Shastri had minced no words when he said: “The philosophy regarding the yo-yo test is very simply. You pass you play, you fail you sail. Whosoever thinks that it is a one-off thing can take a walk. It is not going to go anywhere. The captain leads from the front, the selectors and the entire team management are on the same page.”

The results of the Yo-Yo test created ripples in the last month after Sanju Samson, Mohammed Shami and Ambati Rayudu failed the fitness test and were dropped from the respective teams.

Speaking at the pre-departure press conference, even skipper Virat Kohli spoke about the need to make fitness of prime importance as he used the example of Jasprit Bumrah during the Test series in South Africa.

“People might not be able to see a small thing that happens when you play a particular Test match but I think that makes a massive difference," Kohli said. "We are a team that wants to travel well. Jasprit Bumrah was bowling 144 kmph in his last spell during the final Test. That's when one's fitness comes in. When you have people who are fit, hungry and ready, then you are not only competing but also winning matches.