Give athletes enough time to be able to regain match fitness, suggests Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid has opined that players will need time to completely trust themselves once again and to regain full fitness, they need to be given some time. Dravid has further advised young cricketers to use this time to focus on their mental wellbeing, as they will never get another chance like this.
The coronavirus-induced lockdown has not only paused the sporting activities, but it has also ensured the training has also gone out of the window, with players having to utilise whatever little facility they have at their disposal. In such a scenario, expecting them to be at the top of their game would be downright foolish, or at least, Rahul Dravid thinks so.
"One of the challenges for a lot of sportspersons will be to trust their bodies after two or three months of not playing sports or movements that are associated with sports. Regaining match fitness, game fitness, I think that it will take a little bit of time before people can confidently trust themselves and go all out. And that needs to be factored in, to give athletes enough time to be able to regain match fitness,â Dravid said during the show 'Staying Ahead of the Curve - The Power of Trust' on Facebook Live.
"For a short period there may be a sense of doubt or fear about certain things, I am sure there will be a certain hesitancy when we get back in, also there will be certain hesitancy in terms of people. Personally, I don't see that (break in sporting events due to pandemic) as a huge problem. I don't think that once elite sportspersons get on the field, get to do what they really love, they will have a problem,â the former Indian skipper added.
Dravid has been involved in Indian cricket in various capacities after his retirement from the sport and now works as the Director of National Cricket Academy while working with the youth teams. As a part of his job, he interacts with a lot of young cricketers while preparing a roadmap for them, and the Karnataka man revealed that he advised young players to use this period to rest their mind and body.
"I have been telling a lot of the cricketers to see it as an opportunity to rest the body, rest the mind, you will never get that opportunity, never get that chance. Think about it, if you use this two months well, three months well, you could elongate your career by two or three years at the back end which you might not have if you didn't have this kind of break."