BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia has assured that the board will look into the next Future Tours Programme (FTP) cycle so that players have more breathing room, as the physical toll of a jam-packed calendar keeps piling up.
The warning signs were there well before Saikia’s comments, as captain Shubman Gill had already sounded the alarm on his squad’s conditioning after a string of fitness setbacks derailed India’s campaign during their 2-1 ODI series defeat to England.
“Individual players are having injuries because they have to play a lot of matches if you look at their schedule,” Saikia said.
“If you look at England, we have a team of 15 players who went for the ODI and out of those 15, three or four players got injured during the match. But 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 also.”
Indian player injuries on the rise
Key players like Jasprit Bumrah failed to get through a three-match series without breaking down.
It started with Hardik Pandya, who was already nursing a back issue and then picked up a quadriceps strain during rehab work at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence.
His stand-in, Nitish Kumar Reddy, wasn’t spared either, going down with a quad injury of his own soon after. Add to that hamstring troubles for both Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar at various points on the tour, and the picture only got messier.
BCCI to ensure proper rest for next FTP
Saikia was quick to bat away suggestions that poor internal communication was behind the injury crisis and was fairly upbeat about how things were being run internally.
“Everybody is on the same page. BCCI is working very well, like a well-oiled engine,” Saikia told reporters after a review meeting held in Mumbai on September 3.
“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 team’s coaching staff and the head coach. There is no difficulty in the coordination; everything is moving in the right direction.”
According to Saikia, it comes down to sheer volume of cricket. He pointed out that India sent 15 players for the England ODIs, and three or four of them broke down mid-series, and he was quick to add that those same players had just come off two months of grinding through the IPL beforehand, which naturally builds up wear and tear on the body.
Saikia informed that BCCI representatives would soon be raising the issue at international forums to push for FTPs that build in proper recovery time, along with acclimatisation windows before big tours to SENA countries.
“We have expected our FTP persons who will be meeting very soon in various international forums that our FTP should be in such a way, should be scheduled that there is proper rest for the players as well as some kind of acclimatisation or some kind of pending matches before any major series in SENA countries.
