Gqeberha — At this day and age, the concept of rest and recovery is over-hyped and misused because in cricket, nothing can replace time out in the middle and that is what SA players need in the Indian Premier League.
Rest and recovery in sport was a foreign concept not so long ago and athletes still set records that are yet to be broken.
Despite all that, in today’s sporting world, rest and recovery is all we hear about.
In most cases, it is an over-hyped and misused concept. What happened to playing as much games as possible?
Looking at Proteas players in the ongoing Indian Premier League, many of them have a handful of games at most and there’s only two weeks left in the competition.
Quinton de Kock, one of the best batters in the world, was benched for a full month and has only just played his solitary IPL game of the season.
One of the go-to Proteas’ fast bowlers, Lungi Ngidi, is yet to get game time this season and even in the season before, the fast bowler did not play a single game.
Having played only four out of 11 games this season, Kagiso Rabada has also spent quite some time carrying drinks for his Punjab teammates.
In a World Cup year, what good can it do for South Africa when all these big players are getting almost very little action?
Only Faf du Plessis has played every game for his team thus far this season. However, as we learnt from coach Rob Walter, he is unlikely to be selected in the ODI World Cup squad.
The World Cup being in India would’ve also aided South African players to test themselves in more or less the same conditions that they will play in during the World Cup in October.
No amount of rest can compare to time out in the middle, especially in a World Cup year.
IOL Sport