CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association is contemplating making investment in a state-of-the-art GPS facility to track the fitness levels of the state senior side. In the lead-up to the national one-day championship for the Vijay Hazare Trophy, which is currently underway in Chennai, Tamil Nadu players were seen wearing this on their vests during practice sessions.
Named Catapult, this helps in monitoring speed, acceleration, heart rate, torque etc. Explaining how it works, Tamil Nadu’s strength and conditioning coach Ramji Srinivasan said: “It is a unique technology that we have introduced on an experimental basis to monitor the workload of players. This will help us track where they are lacking and what we can do in terms of improving their fitness.”
While this is common for international sides — Team India having started using it recently — to seek the help of a system like this, not many domestic teams have adopted this technology. “Everything is individualised in this. A bowler is giving 100 per cent in the morning and afternoon sessions. But if his pace drops in the third, this will show what’s wrong. Similarly, even if they don’t have a rewarding day on the field, you will know if they have given 100 per cent,” said Ramji, who worked with the 2011 World Cup-winning Indian team.
While NFL and NBA teams have been using this for long, Ramji believes it will be of immense benefit for the Tamil Nadu cricket team. “In the last two years we have been setting high standards in terms of improving fitness levels and it is a continuation of that process. We work towards reducing injuries and with this GPS, you know what kind of load management a player is going through.”
This isn’t the first time Ramji has used this device. During his stint with the Indian team, he tried it out during the Sydney Test in 2012. But the idea to add this to the system didn’t materialise. After six years, the Board of Control for Cricket in India finally decided to have something similar for the senior men’s team during the recent tour of England.