Bengaluru, Aug 9 (IANS) Stating injuries are an inevitable part of modern-day elite sport, BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) head VVS Laxman said on Sunday the facility carries a broader mandate than just rehabilitating injured players while asserting that seamless coordination exists between support staff, selectors, and team management.
Amidst mounting injury concerns hurting the senior men’s and women’s teams at various junctures, Laxman addressed a press conference alongside BCCI President Mithun Manhas, secretary Devajit Saikia, treasurer Raghuram Bhatt, and joint secretary Prabhtej Singh Bhatia. The quartet also had a meeting with Laxman to address the increasing injury concerns at the high-performance facility spread over nearly 40 acres on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
“CoE is not merely a rehab centre. There are bigger roles to play for it in helping cricketers achieve excellence. I don’t think it’s a cause of concern. But obviously when someone is playing at the elite level, you’re supposed to give more than 100 percent because if you’re not, then you’re not doing justification to the role or for what purpose you’re selected in the team. There’s no doubt that the modern generation of players has to play a lot more cricket than probably when I used to play the game.
“Obviously with the addition of T20, the three formats, but that’s when all the initiatives which CoE and SSM staff has taken, it will benefit them. It’s not only for the contracted or targeted players, it will benefit even the state players. So I think ultimately injuries are part and parcel of any player,” said Laxman in the press conference.
He also said that elite athletes naturally push their bodies, thus making physical setbacks an unavoidable component of competitive sport. “I just want to reiterate that when you’re playing at the highest level, you finish your whatever series, from that series to the next series, you automatically work hard on getting better, and on getting fitter. Even though you do that with playing at the highest level, you can get injured.
“So if you’re thinking about not to get injured, then you’re not playing to the best of your ability. So I think one thing which should be addressed, and I think that’s changed dramatically, is how you see injury. Do you see injury as a negative thing? Or do you think injury is part and parcel?
“You obviously get better and evolve in the processes to take care of the players, but injuries are bound to happen. I think that’s why the monitoring system is very, very critical. I’ve got no doubt that Adrian and Nick or Kamlesh and Rakhi are doing that when they’re playing for the country. You get injured and we have to understand that it’s part and parcel of playing international cricket with the intensity you expect them to play,” he explained.
Laxman further dismissed reports of miscommunication or finger-pointing over player fitness, even as players like Jasprit Bumrah, B Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep, Prince Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy are rehabbing from varied injuries at the CoE.
“I think we don’t like to use the name blame because when you’re using the blame, then you’re finding someone as a scapegoat. I don’t know what you all feel and you start blaming because of this and because of that. But there’s a brilliant coordination between the CoE, team management of both the teams and the SSM staff of both the teams and the selection committee,” he said.
Detailing the process regarding the conditional selection of key players like Bumrah and Sudharsan, who are now not in sight to play the two-game Test series against Sri Lanka, Laxman explained the systematic flow of information.
“Now you’re talking about Bumrah and Sai Sudharsan. When we send a fitness status report, and the process is that the selector reaches out to the CoE asking for the fitness status report and we collect the current fitness status and send a fitness status report to the selection committee chairman or chairperson in women’s selection committee with a copy to obviously the head coach of both the teams and the BCCI.
“Now with Bumrah and Sai Sudarshan, there’s always an asterisk and this is one thing which you all know that when the media release comes from the BCCI, there’s an asterisk attached to a player selection. And what does that asterisk mean? It means subject to fitness. So Bumrah and Sai Sudarshan were going to be picked to Sri Lanka subject to fitness clearance.”
He further added that recovery trajectories are continuously monitored before final calls are taken. “As I told before, you assess them, you move them from one stage to the next stage and if the progression is slow, you communicate to the selection committee chairman and the head coach, which is happening seamlessly, and they understand that they’re not yet ready to participate in an international series.
“Always it’s player-centric and team-centric. So that communication is happening seamlessly. So the subject to fitness is something we require to keep in mind in any press release, and I think what the BCCI has done is to ensure there is transparency in all the fitness reports and also the selection.
“At the end of the selection, whether it’s a release to the press, it’s clearly mentioned that these players are picked subject to fitness. It means if they don’t clear the fitness test here, that means the selectors will know who are the other players who will go in their place if they don’t clear the fitness test. I mean, it’s basic common sense.”
Elaborating on the administrative timeline, Secretary Saikia explained why the ‘subject to fitness’ clause remains essential during squad announcements. “Just to add to your question, we basically have our selection meetings at least three to four weeks before the team departs. So therefore, three weeks before or four weeks before, we do not know the exact status of the player.
“Therefore, that asterisk subject to fitness is given because that particular player is under a program of rehabilitation. So if he gets picked within the period of 21 days or 28 days, he will be taken into the team. That is done precisely as we do not outrightly reject him because on the date of selection, we are rejecting him because on that day he is not picked.
“But by the time it will be effectively required for the travel or to play the match, by that time he may be totally picked. So in that situation, we always keep that subject to fitness condition and we do not deprive the player also. It is very uncertain that within 21 days he will get picked or not. Nobody can predict that as it is a human body, not a machine. So he may take 14 or 28 days time, subject to his own body composition,” Saikia concluded.
–IANS
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