Johannesburg — Sisanda Magala’s fitness is back in the spotlight after he missed the Lions’ CSA T20 Challenge clash with the Titans on Wednesday after falling short of Cricket SA’s fitness standards.
It was the second match in a row that the 31 year old all-rounder has failed a fitness test and his absence was clearly felt as his team slumped to a heavy defeat to their provincial neighbours.
The Lions’s management had hoped to get Magala fit in time for the competition, after he’d shown improvement in the requisite tests recently, specifically a 2km time trial that players have to complete in 8 minutes and 30 seconds.
Magala’s continued problems with fitness comes seven months after he was omitted by the national selectors from the Proteas squad for failing to meet CSA fitness requirements. In the off-season following a coaches conference and strength and condition workshop that was hosted by CSA’s high performance management team all the coaches and provincial administrators agreed to the new standards.
Squads for the CSA T20 Challenge had to be submitted to CSA two weeks before the start of the competition, and the Lions included Magala in the side in the hope that in that time, they could get him to pass the tests. The team’s management will continue to work with him over the next few days in the hope of getting him fit for the latter stages of the competition.
Magala was picked up for R5.5-million in the new SA20 tournament. That competition takes place outside of CSA’s authority so the same fitness standards aren’t required.
Asked about Magala’s absence at the toss on Wednesday, the Lions captain Malusi Siboto said simply: “I’m not going to talk about that.”
Magala, who has been working extremely hard on his fitness in the off-season under the watchful eye of specialists, said last week that he knew “he wasn’t a physically gifted person,” but it hadn’t stopped him from performing on the field.
Besides robbing the Lions of one of their most important players, the affair appears to have been a massive distraction for Magala’s teammates. They were lethargic for large parts of their stint in the field after Siboto had won the toss.
They dropped three sitters, the first of which proved costly as Jiveshan Pillay, promoted from no.9 to opening batter, took advantage of the chance gifted to him by Tetelo Maphaka on 35, to score 61, an innings that saw him hit six fours and three sixes.
The Lions’s bowling, despite helpful conditions, was poor as well, with control of line and length lacking, that allowed the Titans to hit 13 fours and 11 sixes in their innings and post the biggest total in this season’s competition.
By contrast, the Titans produced another suffocating display in the field, effectively winning the match inside the first three overs of the Lions’s run chase thanks to a magnificent direct hit by Aya Gqamane to run out Ryan Rickelton, while Cameron Delport, was thrillingly caught by a diving Sibonelo Makhanya at backward point off the bowling of Simon Harmer.
IOL Sport