Cricket: Meticulous fitness regime helps make a good team great

Former New Zealand sprint champ Chris Donaldson oversees the New Zealand fitness programme. Photo / Norrie Mongomery

Form might be temporary but fitness must be permanent if you're a member of the New Zealand cricket team.

It's no monastery but, before a day's play, team members are monitored to make sure they're in optimum shape to take the field.

Players have to drink a certain amount of fluid when they wake-up, which includes loading up their sodium levels to prevent dehydration in the 30-plus temperatures of the United Arab Emirates.

Soon they place a drop of their urine in a refractometer for what's colloquially known as the "piss test" which tells them whether they need to take on more fluid. At the ground they weigh themselves, then warm up, get through the day bolstered by the likes of protein shakes, and take an ice bath at the end so their bodies have a better chance to heal minor tissue tears created during exercise.

Normatec technology is also used. That involves putting sleeves on arms and legs which are subject to pneumatic compression, like when someone's blood pressure is taken. The idea is the sleeves enable the blood to circulate better after a period of exertion.

Such a meticulous regime doesn't guarantee runs and wickets; technique and muscle memory are also mandatory. However, the team's strength and conditioning coach, former Olympic sprinter Chris Donaldson, says the players have bought into it because they can see the benefits of working on the small percentages which can make a good team great.

The regime doesn't preclude a couple of beers with a meal to unwind. It's doing things in moderation, including moderation at times, especially when you've celebrated three straight test series wins.

Fitness is unlikely to be a saviour in this series where tosses have played such a major role but, in combination with skill and willpower, Donaldson's convinced it enabled the team to fight back in the second test to the point of contesting for victory on the final day.

The Atlanta Olympian has been part of the environment since July 2011. His contract extends to the World Cup. He stresses that his systems are designed to complement cricket rather than be a complete solution.

"They might be able to run the 100m in 10.1s [Donaldson's personal best is 10.17s] but it doesn't mean they can bat and bowl," he says.

"It's all about minimising things like injury and improving consistency. For instance, our [long-term] injury rates have been low of late so we're tracking in the right direction."

That makes a change for fans conditioned to seeing players hobbling from the field, teams jury-rigged until the ends of tours, and terms like "stress fracture" and "medial ligament strain" becoming part of the common vernacular.

One of Donaldson's mantras has been to change a common perception cricketers are poor excuses for elite athletes. "Conditioning is such a controllable and, when you consider matches can be decided by one run or wicket, the more physically prepared you are for dealing with those situations the better chance you'll have."

He also wants to adapt players to the rigours of force on their bodies such as bowlers' impact at the point of delivery or batsmen stretching to play shots.

"That's the biggest breaking point so I try to put significant loads on them so they become faster and stronger.

"I've taken a lot out of my sprint training. There's not much downtime in [the New Zealand] schedule so we try to do big conditioning blocks before tours. There tends to be a significant lifting component and high intensity running. We also do some ballistics [the term for when an athlete lifts, accelerates, and then releases weight in an explosive manner to build up fast-twitch fibres].

"I try to set up a level of intensity so when it comes to the game, their bodies have already done the loads."

• Andrew Alderson travelled to the UAE courtesy of Emirates.