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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

There comes a time when all good things must come to an end. It was so with the Sri Lanka cricket team when the players had to bid a sad farewell to their physiotherapist Alex Kountouri who had looked after them for the past seven and a half years.

If there were some emotional moments one couldn't blame the cricketers because many of them knew that they have had their careers extended because they had gone through the healing hands of Kountouri. What Kountouri did to uplift the standard of Sri Lanka cricket will never be the topic of discussion whenever the success of Sri Lanka cricket is discussed at pubs and clubs.

Physio's are usually the back room boys and hardly figure in the success of the team. The role they play hardly comes to light. It is the players and the captain, and the coach who take all the kudos when they win and, the brickbats when they lose. In that respect the role Kountouri played is worth highlighting here.

"In seven and a half years I've learnt a lot and I have taken Sri Lanka cricket to a certain level and I would like to see some progress being made in that direction. I've just completed a 20-page proposal to the Cricket Board outlining from my experience what I think the structure of physiotherapy, fitness and medicine for Sri Lanka cricket should be," said Kountouri in an interview before he left for Australia with his five-month pregnant Sri Lankan-born wife.

"I believe that structure will make them the leaders in sports medicine in terms of all the cricket playing countries, because it will be specifically for cricket players. It is something not even Australia has in place. We can do these things in Sri Lanka because it is a small country and the cost of labour is quite cheap.

"When the Cricket Board is still earning in dollars and pounds, the cost of labour here is relatively cheap, utilising local physiotherapists and training them with people like myself and the next person who comes and takes my job.

"We are giving access to physiotherapy and fitness only to a small group - the national team, the 'A' team and the under 19 at the moment. We need to diversify that to club, regional and school cricket. All of them don't have access to specialised physiotherapy.

I have proposed that physiotherapists be appointed in each province or district. That process has to be ongoing.

We are all judged by what happens in the national team," said Kountouri.

Kountouri said that coach Whatmore found him by luck.

"I was first contacted in about September 1995 by a sports medicine doctor in Melbourne. He was also the doctor for the Victoria Institute of Sport where Dav used to work as a coach with the cricket team and I, with the soccer team. I also worked in a sports medicine clinic and this doctor was also involved in that clinic as a consultant.

"He asked me whether I was interested because Dav had spoken to him about getting a physio only for the Australian 1995-96 tour. I said I was interested because I loved cricket. I watch cricket all the time on television. I thought it was a nice break to get involved in a full time job with a sports team, which allows you to be more professional.

"I had just finished my second university course which is a post graduate for the main sports physiotherapy and spent the last two years combining work and studying, upgrading my knowledge purely in sports medicine. I first met the Sri Lanka team in Northern Australia, a place called Cairns.

I flew there on my birthday and was very nervous because I didn't know anyone. I wasn't very sure of the players because they were of a different culture.

But when I met them everyone seemed very friendly. That was the start.

"The whole tour was interesting apart from my perspective as a physiotherapist and also from the cricket perspective. What I realised when I first met them without being to Sri Lanka was that there was a lack of facilities. I had to be as professional as possible.

"I faxed Dav for a list of medications, plasters and all sorts of things to bring. He said that it should be fine. When he came, he gave me a coffin and it was full. It was really heavy and I thought it was fantastic they've got everything. I opened the coffin and all it contained was some brochures of Sri Lanka for the cricket foundation. It was full of pamphlets and paper work. I removed all that and there was no medication.

"I rang some people whom I knew in Australia and they sponsored us with some medical products. That sort of gave me the first idea of where Sri Lanka stood in terms of the physiotherapy and medical side of things. Before me they had Dan Kiesel, who was a doctor. I am not sure what sort of interest he had in sports medicine.

"I think I was the first qualified physiotherapist to work with the team.

The team does not know what is required until someone qualified comes. I spent that whole summer acquiring equipment and getting to know the players and just working with them.

"When I first came to Sri Lanka, I realised there was no culture for sports medicine. That was something I thought was unfair on the players. I am sure that sports medicine makes a difference because you just can't play international sport and train regularly and not have overused and traumatic injuries. Unless you had an infrastructure in place it is difficult.

"For the first six months I operated from a small gymnasium area from the Cricket Board with equipment that I would classify as suitable for someone's house. It was a dark room and where the National Development Centre is now.

For the first six months I took a portable bed around to treat players. That is why I am so happy now coming to the end point that we have a gymnasium at the Cricket Board (it has been named after Kountouri), we have treatment facilities, we've got two Sri Lankan physios working there, and it's a nice area for the players to do their exercises and receive treatment. But to be honest, it is only the tip of the iceberg," said Kountouri.

(To be Continued next week)

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