New physio ready for Team India fitness challenges
MUMBAI: Team India’s new physiotherapist, Ewan Speechly is well aware about the fitness level of Tendulkar, Sehwag and Zaheer Khan and is upbeat to enhance the fitness level on Indian players.
“I’m very excited about my appointment as the Indian team’s physiotherapist. I am aware about their injuries and even treated several of them in the past”, he said while talking exclusively to The Sports Encounter scribe over telephone from South Africa.
Interestingly, his name was not recommended by coach Duncan Fletcher, as is the normal practice. “I showed my interest to work with the Indian team and forwarded my CV to Anil Kumble and had couple of discussions and correspondence with him”, Speechly added.
“I knew Kumble since he came to play in South Africa for the Asian Team against Afro-asian team in 2005″.
“I first got involved with Indian cricket when Javagal Srinath came for surgery for his Right shoulder by Dr Mark Ferguson at the Centre for Sports Medicine in 1998. Soon after that, we (the physios at the Centre for Sports Medicine) got a call from India looking for a physio for the Indian team. Andrew Leipus was working with us at the time, and he was chosen to come over and take on the job, a job as you know was superbly done”.
Evan Speechly
“Since then a lot of top Indian cricketers have come to our Centre for treatment, including Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Harbhjan Singh, Ashish Nehra, and Zaheer Khan”.
“Besides Mark Ferguson, the orthopedic surgeon who’s operated on Srinath, Kumble and Zaheer Khan, we also have Debie Davidson who’s a top shoulder therapist, Frank Dubowitz (a podiatrist who’s made orthotics for a lot of the current Indian team (including Sachin Tendulkar), and Jannie Klingbiel (who’s does a lot of the strengthening and conditioning of these players)”, the new physio added.
“I qualified in 1984 in Johannesburg, and over the years have been the physio for the South African Rugby team (1992-1997), South African Soccer team (1992 -1994)and the Lions Cricket team (1998-2010)”.
“I toured India with the South African”A” side in 2007, and have been the physiotherapist for Royal Challengers, Bangalore, since 2008″, he singed off.
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