Former West Indies batsman and Jamaica captain Nehemiah Perry insists the evident lack of proper fitness programs for several professional cricketers around the Caribbean remains unacceptable.

The topic of player fitness has been a hot-button issue in recent years, with a few cricketers failing fitness tests and others on occasions noticeably overweight.  The issue is back in the spotlight following the recently concluded Women's T20 Blaze where Jamaica were crowned champions. 

Some critics have pointed to the lack of a regulatory fitness program for the regional, players but Perry insists it must also be an issue of personal responsibility.

“I don’t think enough work is being put into our cricketers and our cricketers are not properly monitoring themselves.  They eat anything they want, they eat KFC, they eat Burger King, they eat Chinese, they don’t have a proper program,” Perry told the Mason and Guest radio program.

“A part of the program is nutrition.  You have to be eating properly to be a top-class cricketer because your body is going to need it, because, it brings the best out of your body.  Rehydration, you go to the beach, you swim, you do all of these things, you follow a specific program,” he added.

“Players aren’t following that, they go on their phones and they go and sit in the dressing room and do nothing and then they go home and put on weight.  How can you be a professional cricketer and a be putting on weight?  You are not supposed to be putting on weight.”