Things come full circle for UAE's Indian physio

MUMBAI: An Indian physio will be up against his own national team when the United Arab Emirates face the defending World Cup champions on Saturday.
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Hyderabadi Chitrala Sudhakar has been working for UAE since 2006, and also had a brief stint with the Pakistan team during their 2010 Twenty20 International series against South Africa.
It was former India Test pacer Abid Ali who helped Sudhakar take up the assignment.This was back when Andhra Pradesh had made it to the Ranji Trophy knockouts in 2001. At that time, Ali was the Andhra coach and Sudhakar the physio. Ali subsequently went on to become the UAE coach and Sudhakar took up the physio's job.
"In 2003, the UAE under-17 team came to Visakhapatnam and Abid asked me to help them. The very next year UAE employed me as their physio," said Sudhakar, who has since then stuck with the team, playing a big part in keeping the players fit and helping them qualify for the World Cup.
When Sudhakar joined UAE, many of the team members didn't even have a fitness programme. "They are amateurs. When I started working with them, many were not fit. That could be because cricket is a part-time job for many of them and some are in their 30s. I started from scratch and you can see the change now," Sudhakar said, adding: "They are all hard-working people. Whatever schedule I give them, they follow it diligently."
Many UAE players say they owe a lot to Sudhakar, including 43-year-old veteran Khurram Khan. "If I look back at my long cricketing career for UAE and my battle to keep myself fit at this age, one man stands out. There are so many incidents when I felt my tour was over because of injury, but Sudhakar made sure I was fit for the game," Khan said.
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