BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry has raised some important questions on Indian cricket team’s compulsory fitness test, Yo-Yo test, and asked those to the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) for BCCI.

Indian cricketers like Sanju Samson, Mohammad Shami and Ambati Rayudu failed this test recently which has been forced them out from the Indian cricket team or India ‘A’ cricket team. After these unexpected incidents, the ‘Yo-Yo test’ has come under the scanner.

Recently, BCCI treasurer wrote an eight-page letter for CoA where he asked that who decided to make the test compulsory and also asked for the scientific evidence to support this test.

According to ‘The Print’, some of those important questions have been asked by Chaudhry are as follows:

i) I keep reading about the ‘YoYo Test’ being a criterion for selection into the Indian Team. Is this correct? If so, who took this decision and when and what is the rationale for the same?

ii) What is the exact nature of relation between the head physio at the NCA and the physio of the Indian cricket team? Who is responsible and accountable between the two for injured players’ rehabilitation?

iii) In the absence of any communication to me regarding any such policy of a qualifying score in a YoYo test being a prerequisite for selection to the Indian team, I will go with the assumption that somehow the reports of this being true are correct. If it is not so, this part of my communication may kindly be ignored:

• At which forum was the decision taken to have a minimum score on the YoYo 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?
• Most importantly, once this decision was taken, to whom was the same communicated? Was it communicated to all First Class players in India? Was it communicated to all List A players in India? Was it communicated to all State Cricket Associations to communicate to their players?

iv) As per my understanding, there are various parameters for optimum fitness. i.e. speed, strength endurance, flexibility, agility, explosive strength, reaction tests, aerobic fitness. Is it the case that we are testing only for aerobic fitness and neglecting the rest of the parameters?

v) Was it discussed that in the case of a tour where a player suffers an injury, the selectors may be required to select a replacement in a hurry and it may not be possible to conduct YoYo tests of all players available for selection and who are also match fit? Was there a scope for exemptions to be made in extraneous circumstances?

vi) What happens if the best player of the team has a mild niggle in the knee but can play the Test match that starts in two days but because of the knee niggle, he is not in a position to or is not advised to take a YoYo test at all?

vii) Is the player required to wait for a period of six weeks before he is allowed to take another YoYo test by the organisation? If so, is there any rationale for this?

viii) Is every YoYo test conducted in a fair, transparent and objective manner? Is there any evidence that is maintained to demonstrate that in the case of each test, the distance between each cone was indeed 20 m and there has been no deviation therefrom? How is this ensured?