Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) are in the process of introducing new fitness protocols for their national cricketers to lessen the number of injuries they undergo playing at international level.

At the last T20 World Cup in Australia, Sri Lanka suffered a spate of injuries to its players especially the fast bowlers and had to have several replacements during the tournament, which greatly affected the team’s performances.

Sri Lanka failed to make it to the knockout stage finishing fourth in their group with two wins and three losses.

“Most of the injuries that happened were soft tissue injuries and some of them were due to the soft ground conditions that we experienced playing in Geelong,” said Sri Lanka assistant coach Naveed Nawaz.

Sri Lanka who had to qualify for the Super 12 of the T20 World Cup played their three qualifying round matches at Geelong where the weather was extremely cold and the conditions underfoot soft.

“The training program has been altered and we are thinking about having new fitness protocols to counter the injuries. I am sure it’s going to be successful. We are going to counter the soft tissue injuries that we had in the past,” said Nawaz.

On 1 January, SLC appointed expert physiotherapist Chris Clarke-Irons as the lead physiotherapist of the national team on a two-year contract. (ST)

Batsmen blamed for defeat in first T20I