Fitness is, these days, discussed as much as an Indian cricketer's skill, record and experience. The spate of injuries to several star players of late - thanks mainly to the packed international calendar - has meant that the role of a physio is now all important to a team. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has at last woken up to the fact that the personnel looking after the fitness of the players over the last few years were not equal to the task. Given the top level fitness required by today's cricketers, the BCCI realised that what the need of the hour was a thorough professional, an expert in this specialised field. After many of the star players reported unfit, the BCCI cast the net far and wide in an effort to find the right candidate. By all accounts, they could not have come up with a more qualified person than Andrew Leipus.

The Australian born South African was recommended by none other than Ali Bacher, chief executive of the United Cricket Board of South Africa. In fact so impressive was his record that the BCCI wanted to sign him up immediately after the World Cup. The 29-year-old Adelaide born Leipus however had to fulfil his many commitments and so it is only now that he has taken up his new assignment.

"Ideally I would have liked to spend a couple of months before the series against New Zealand with the boys," he said in Mohali during the first Test. "But I had to fulfil my contract with Transvaal in South Africa."

Leipus has been involved in the field of physical fitness for the past 12 years and has had the experience of having been involved in other sports too. He will make some preliminary tests before going into the details of each players' fitness. He has been with the boys for the past few days but is expected to seriously start working with them on various aspects of physical fitness only after the Mohali Test. Perhaps the Indian cricketers will show some improvement as a direct result of Leipus' methods in the second Test at Kanpur which commences on October 22. In any case, Leipus expressed confidence that the overall fitness of the Indian cricketers would improve by the time the team left for Australia.

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