Mumbai, Sep 3 — The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said it will seek better scheduling in the upcoming Future Tours Programme (FTP) and strengthen player rehab protocols to combat rising injuries caused by a heavy workload of international and franchise games, said secretary Devajit Saikia on Thursday.
Injury management remains a central concern after several high-profile players like Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, and B. Sai Sudharsan missed recent tours despite initial conditional selections due to varied injuries.
With the likes of Bumrah, Sundar, Reddy and Harshit Rana named in the upcoming 15-man T20I squad against Afghanistan with the asterisk of ‘subject to fitness’, scrutiny on the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru has intensified, although Saikia and head of cricket, former India batter VVS Laxman, previously clarified that the high-performance centre is more than just a rehabilitation facility.
"Individual players are having injuries because they have to play a lot of matches. If you look at their schedule, in England, we had a 15-player team go for the ODIs, and out of that, three or four players got injured during the match. We have to think that they had played two months of IPL before that.
“So all this takes a toll on the health of the players. To avoid those kinds of situations under the present window and FTPs, we are trying to find out some ways to tackle it," Saikia told reporters after a review meeting happened at BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Thursday.
The high-level meetings, attended by Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill and T20I skipper Shreyas Iyer along with head coach Gautam Gambhir, evaluated existing return-to-play guidelines to ensure players undergo thorough clearance before resuming international duty.
“We have a protocol in place for how a player can come back to the matches again in international matches. So when a player is injured, he goes to his own physio, or he comes to the rehab programme in CoE, and before allowing him to be a part of the Indian team, there are certain measures they have to take and certain hurdles they have to cross.
“So those kinds of things, we have revisited today, and whatever is the best way we can take forward the players to have no injury in the international matches. We have discussed these issues, and we will further discuss this topic in our next meetings,” added Saikia.
He further clarified that the discussions focused purely on systemic policy rather than specific individual selection or fitness cases. “There was no discussion on any individual player. Today's discussion was totally general in nature, and what policies and protocols we have to maintain regarding maintaining the fitness level of every player, not about any individual, and what is in the best interest of the team, we have considered that only.
“We have taken the feedback from the captains and the head coach, who are the right persons to give us the information, so that we chalk up a proper strategy to avoid all these kinds of unwanted situations during any international or bilateral matches.”
Saikia also rejected suggestions of differences between national team management and CoE staff. “We don't see that kind of situation in us, and there is no such situation that there is a communication breakdown or there is no integrity among the CoE or the Team India staff or technical persons.
“There is no such situation - the only thing is that what is troubling us is the injuries of some players, which is happening frequently and to avoid that, we have to do certain things. We have to take up some measures so that the players do not suffer injuries frequently,” he said.
Addressing the long-standing vacancy for the head of sports science at the CoE, Saikia assured that ongoing operations remain fully functional while the board searches globally for a qualified specialist.
"I would like to reiterate once more that the vacant position of the head of sports science is not a deterrent to our activities in CoE. That post is required, but that is a very high-level post for which the properly qualified person should be positioned. Not any person who has only a qualification is fit for that.
“In that aspect, we have about 16 persons in place to maintain the fitness level or the rehab or the prehab facilities in CoE. But to supervise that, one important person is required, and for that person who will be in that position, he must be qualified up to a different level. That kind of person is very short in number in India as well as in the whole world.
“So we are trying to find that kind of person at the earliest possible time. Once again, we will start the exercise to find a person who can fit into that position of the head of sports science medicine in CoE. But without him also, it is running in the right manner.”
Saikia signed off by saying that overall operational harmony remains intact across all arms of the board, with clear directions given for upcoming global scheduling talks for both men’s and women’s team matches.
“Everybody is on the same page. BCCI is working like a well-oiled engine. There is proper coordination amongst all the wings of BCCI, whether it is women's team committees or their technical staff or their coaches vis-a-vis the COE, vis-a-vis the Indian men's teams, coaching staff and the head coach.
“There is no difficulty in the coordination. Everything is moving in the right direction. The only challenges which we are facing are that there are too many matches in the year, and that is why in the next FTP, we will do certain things and take certain measures.
“We have instructed our FTP personnel, who will be meeting very soon in various international forums, that our FTP should be scheduled in such a way that it should be scheduled that there is proper rest for the players as well as some kind of acclimatisation through friendly matches before any major series in SENA countries.”