Monday, September 24, 2001 Steve Waugh could easily have fooled the world. He certainly fooled his body, hobbling to an unbeaten 157 at The Oval last month when he had no business to leave the masseur's table. Some said that he needed a psychotherapist more than a physiotherapist: it was an act of courage that bordered on insanity. But the outcome was so spectacular, so magnificently heroic that it had the potential to trigger a cult following.

Luckily, Andrew Leipus, the Australian trainer of the Indian cricket team, was alive to the realities of Waugh. Australia's captain is almost superman. An awestruck letter writer sums him up neatly in the current issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly: if Steve Waugh had been the captain of the Titanic, the iceberg wouldn't have stood a chance. There are very few things in the world that are beyond him. But mere mortals like Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan need protection, even if they are convinced they don't.

For a long time, fitness trials have been mere charades in India, conducted because they ought to be, but often without purpose or method. In the 1980s they were unheard of. Players were their own masters: they declared themselves fit or unfit and their word was taken as final. There were instances of players pulling out on the morning, citing sudden injuries and then recovering miraculously before the next match. Much like the current office-holders of the Indian cricket board, the team doctor was an honorary fellow, allowed to travel with the team not because he was a master of sports medicine but because of his proximity to someone powerful in the Board. Members of touring teams to England will tell you that if they were injured, they would seek out the English physio, Bernard Thomas.

For ten long years from 1987, Ali Irani masqueraded as the official physio of the Indian team. He was a popular figure, always obliging reporters with an appropriate quote. It turned out that he obliged the players too, far beyond the call of duty. He was less of a physio and more of a jack-of-all-trades. We last saw him on the Tehelka tapes, offering insights into match-fixing. A short while later, the CBI investigations revealed that he had been a delivery boy himself and the parcels he delivered to players often contained money from bookmakers.

Andrew Leipus is the second professional trainer to have been appointed by the Indian Board. He replaced fellow Australian Andrew Kokinos in 1999 and, though Indian players continue to rank among the least fit in world cricket, Leipus has gone about setting up training systems, working out customised routines for individual players and preparing an off-season schedule. He is paid a hefty fee, but the Board can afford it. Crucially, it's a job he holds on merit and he isn't beholden to anyone.

He had the last word on Nehra after the nation was subjected to two days of farcical speculation over his fitness. Nehra, one of the plus points of India's tour to Zimbabwe, was convinced that he was fit, and Sourav Ganguly desperately wanted him . But the decision was made by the man who is best equipped to decide and that's the way it ought to be.

The Indian team now has a captain who can demand and get the players he wants. And we have a trainer who can overrule the captain on grounds of fitness. That's the way it is done in most parts of the world, but for India, it's a new beginning.

Sambit Bal is India editor of Wisden.com. His column appears every Monday.

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