More than 18 months since Nitin Patel, the head of BCCI’s sports science at the Centre of Excellence, parted ways, its head VVS Laxman has revealed that the board is still searching for a suitable candidate who could be the missing link with regards to injury management. According to Laxman, and BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, the board has had completed three extensive interviews to find a new candidate only for the selected candidate to pull out at the eleventh hour due to personal reasons.
Given the recent setbacks Indian cricketers have had with the injuries, questions have been raised about the fitness protocols in the team as well as at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Despite Jasprit Bumrah and B Sai Sudharsan’s names included for the Sri Lanka Tests subject to fitness clearance, they were ruled out of the series after they failed to recover in time. Once their names were withdrawn, the focus fell on CoE’s handling of the injuries, which Laxman defended straight up.
“CoE is not merely a rehab centre. There are bigger roles to play for it in helping cricketers achieve excellence,” Laxman said. But more importantly he spoke about the absence of a sports medicine head. “After Nitin left, we did not get anyone who can fill in that position. We had Andrew Leipus, everything was agreed upon, in fact, Devajit had two or three meetings with him but suddenly Andrew backed off at the last moment citing family reasons. We conducted a full-fledged interview process where we had Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, Dr. Ashish Soni, Dr. Rohan Khavte and myself, we shortlisted five candidates and number one was an Australian. After selecting him, suddenly he backed out saying he cannot move to Bengaluru,” Laxman said.
Laxman then pointed out why it has been challenging to find a suitable candidate and they had to divide the verticals to make-up for the absence of a sports medicine head. “One of the important conditions is that it is a full time job. It is not a part time one. It is day-to-day monitoring. Another professional (who we selected) was head of sports science at All Blacks (New Zealand rugby team). We engaged with him and he almost agreed but at the last moment he too backed off,” he said.
‘To fill in the position, you require not someone of the stature but the knowledge and understanding of Indian cricketers. Because we did not get head of sports science, we divided it into four verticals and I think a lot of credit goes to the professionals already in the team, because they have stepped up,” he added.
Although the staff at the CoE have shared responsibilities, what can’t be overlooked is the mounting injury crisis. Patel, for example, is credited for the manner he handled Bumrah’s career-threatening back injury ahead of the 2023 World Cup. He was responsible for managing the workload of the players and their injury management. Apart from Bumrah, the likes of Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul too benefited with Mohammed Shami too making a comeback after a year-long spell in the sidelines.
Ramji Srinivasan, the renowned strength and conditioning coach across sports disciplines explained why having a sports science head is important. “It is a very important post because they are the person who heads the entire sports science domain. The person who heads the show should be really, really competent and know the subject, whether it can be a sports med doctor or an exercise physiologist. These two professions would be apt because they are the highest domain as far as sports science is concerned. So, it is very critical to have somebody heading the entire show because you need to set the process and protocols in place and also a system in place. Because you need to have a system at every department,” Ramji says.
While BCCI has different staff looking after the fitness, recovery etc, Ramji explains the role of a sports medicine head. “So, the BCCI has got the structure. Something like a CoE needs to have a head of sports science. Under that, you have all the support staff like strength and conditioning, your physios, recovery specialists. In sports science, you need to have a system, accountability, communication, research, every department needs to have these things. To have these things, the head has to allocate these. Unless and until there is someone who heads the show, accountability can be missing. Because Laxman cannot take care of everything. He is the head of cricket for the entire operation. The head for sports science will come under Laxman,” Ramji says.
While over a year has gone without a sports head, Laxman said they are actively searching for a suitable candidate. “I think the lookout is there, but you have to find someone who is qualified and capable enough to take up that position. We will quite definitely fill that position and the suitable candidate has to be identified,” he added.
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