Good, bad or indifferent, Indian cricket always remains in the news. On the field, it has been a disastrous few months. The T20 world champions lost consecutive white-ball series to Ireland and England. The losses once again put the focus on the team and its management as India were gearing up for the red-ball tour in Sri Lanka, their first World Test Championship series since the historic whitewash against South Africa at home. However, a spate of injuries has now come as an unnecessary distraction. The sick bay is filling up with players such as Jasprit Bumrah (knee injury), B Sai Sudharsan (toe), Hardik Pandya (quadriceps), Nitish K Reddy (quadriceps), Harshit Rana (hamstring) and Washington Sundar (hamstring). Pacer Bumrah and batter Sai Sudharshan, who were named in the squad, had to be subsequently dropped. This has raised quite a few questions regarding injury management by the world’s richest cricket board; there has been no sound answer yet.
Bengaluru’s Centre of Excellence was created with this in mind. It is a place where cricketers’ fitness is assessed—a complete breakdown of injury is done and a timeline given for rehabilitation and return. Last-minute withdrawals from the Sri Lanka series evoked serious concerns over the CoE’s credibility, too. They also pointed to gaps in communication between the CoE, selectors and the team management.
However, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia and CoE Head of Cricket V V S Laxman tried to dispel any apprehension arising out of the frequent injuries in a long discussion with select media. The officials claimed there was no breakdown of communication between the stakeholders. They reiterated the facility’s role in skill development across age-groups while monitoring the welfare of India players and coaches, and not merely to serve as a rehabilitation centre. Laxman held that though players at the CoE are put on a regime based on an expected timeline of return, they are not machines. Beyond better rehabilitation planning, BCCI needs to take a hard look at the workload and overall fitness standard of players. With World Cups and important series coming up in the next few months, the board must enforce policies that would protect players and not expose more of them to physical breakdowns.
