CHENNAI: It's celebration time in BCCI. An IPL without major blemishes under testing circumstances will enhance the credentials of the board. President Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah, IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel and their teams will be praised for their organisational skills. And they will deserve it too.
Once the dust settles and stocks are taken of cricketing resources, the BCCI may also come across some unpleasant facts on the fitness front. A number of players broke down despite not suffering external injuries. At least five — Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha, Varun Chakravarthy — are partially ruled out or fully ruled out or doubtful for the Australia tour. Also injured out are players not selected in the teams for the three formats, like Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Vijay Shankar. Then there are the likes of Rishabh Pant, who missed some part of the IPL due to similar problems.
The worrying part in all these cases is, none of the injuries were caused by external reasons. Most of these are muscle-related problems like hamstring and groin pulls and tears. Ideally, athletes under a fitness regimen should not develop these problems. Barring exceptions, the routines they follow should help them cope with the rigours of performance and training. The high number of breakdowns suggests physical preparation was not adequate.
Dr Ashok Ahuja, former head of sports medicine at Sports Authority of India, has drawn up a list of 19 players including foreigners, who suffered this kind of injuries during IPL. "Six of them were sent home," he says. "Most of these injuries are muscular — hamstring, quadriceps, groin. A lot of it can be attributed to inactivity during the lockdown. Not everybody has access to equipment, which resulted in limited fitness training. Fitness levels were low when they went to IPL. Also, there was no match fitness due to the same reason. There was a de-training effect. When these things happen, strength and endurance components drop, thereby increasing chances of such injuries."
According to him, there were other factors as well. "Living in a bio-bubble for long has its own problems. We are calling it 'isolation mental fatigue'. It affects the mental make-up of the players. Also, the hot and humid conditions in the UAE could have affected their hydration status. Staying indoors for a long time meant there was little exposure to sunlight. These should also be taken into account," added Dr Ahuja, who is also a consultant for BCCI, other than being the medical commission chairman of Badminton Association of India.
The immediate concern for the Indian team is, from one bio-bubble they head into another in Australia. They will have access to practice and training facilities, but psychologically it will be the same or worse, considering that their stay in a restricted environment will get longer. Other than recovery of injured players, the challenge for the team management will be preventing fresh injuries, since there will be tired limbs in the touring contingent.
Dr Ahuja thinks training programmes will have to be reviewed. "As things stand, this bio-bubble for sports will remain at least until mid-2021. If cricket has to happen, it has to happen in this kind of an environment. So the training and recovery methodology has to be changed. There are certain things about the restrictions that you can't change. So take a fresh look at things that you have control over and see how effectively you can change them to meet the requirements of the moment."