Cobras' physio turns spotlight on workload management

Cricket's cluttered calendar has begun to affect domestic players as much as internationals Cobras' physiotherapist Shane Jabaar has said, with the South African franchise the latest to be hit with fitness problems.

While one of Cobras' premier fast bowlers, Beuran Hendricks, has a stress fracture of the back that is set to rule him out till December, Vernon Philander and Rory Kleinveldt also suffered injuries in the lead-up to the Champions League T20, which forced them to call on the recently-retired Charl Langeveldt to beef up their bowling stocks.

Philander was due to be rested for the ODIs against Zimbabwe but could not be considered for the triangular series which followed after aggravating a hamstring concern during the one-off Test. He has been through a recovery programme and Jabaar described his progress as being "on track", despite him suffering whiplash from a car accident earlier this week. He is part of Cobras' Champions League T20 squad and expected to play in the tournament.

Kleinveldt is also among the travelling party after spending most of the winter out of action with a knee problem. He was not considered for either of South Africa's tours to Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe because of his injury but has been declared "95% fit" by Cobras and Jabaar regards him as the most match ready of the injured crop.

"He is further ahead than Vernon with his recovery," Jabbar told ESPNcricinfo. "We've been holding him back a little this week, in terms of his bowling, but we will up his preparations soon," Jabaar said. In a statement, Cobras said Kleinveldt can be considered a "certain starter in India".

Also all but guaranteed a place in the starting XI is Langeveldt, who called time on his career at the end of the last season but is needed for his death-bowling skills in the absence of Dale Steyn. The national team management requested that Steyn sit out the Champions League T20 because of South Africa's schedule over the next few months with includes ODIs in New Zealand and Australia, a home series against West Indies and the World Cup.

Given the current workloads, picking which tours players miss out on is what Jabaar, who has been involved in cricket for most of his career and worked with the South African team, thinks will need to be applied more prudently in future. "There is a constant increase in cricket, especially from about five years ago and it means that there is not much downtime for players," he said. "Where it gets tricky is when play for different teams they are managed in different ways so we have tried to get a system in place in South Africa were we can centralise things and know where each players is at, fitness-wise and injury-wise and hopefully that will help us going forward."