The BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru has come under fresh scrutiny after reports highlighted a significant communication gap between Team India’s Sports Science and Medicine (SSM) unit and the CoE’s own SSM team. According to a PTI report, a glaring disconnect between the CoE’s sports science and medical staff and the senior national men’s selection committee has resurfaced as a pressing concern for Indian cricket.
A Times of India report, citing the CoE’s annual report, revealed that 32 top men’s team players underwent rehabilitation for injuries at the facility between April 2025 and March 2026. Of these, 20 were BCCI centrally contracted players and 12 fell under a new targeted category that also includes India A cricketers. The volume of rehabilitation cases has intensified questions about how injury management is being coordinated across the system.
“breakdown in communication between Team India’s Sports Science and Medicine (SSM) unit and the CoE’s SSM team, with cricket head VVS Laxman being the only medium of communication,” the report said as quoted by NDTV Sports.
The divergence in approach between the travelling support staff and the CoE’s in-house team appears to be central to the reported disconnect. According to the report, Team India strength and conditioning coach Adrian Le Roux suggested a few tweaks to workload-management routines in June 2025, while the CoE has been reluctant to deviate from its own mechanisms. This difference in methodology has reportedly made structured coordination between the two units more difficult.
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“It has been learnt that Team India strength and conditioning (S&C) coach Adrian Le Roux suggested a few tweaks to workload-management routines in June 2025, while the CoE has been reluctant to deviate from its own mechanisms,” the report said.
The CoE houses training and rehabilitation facilities for centrally contracted cricketers and also conducts workshops for young players. It is expected to work in close coordination with the team’s travelling support staff, but the reports suggest that this coordination has not been functioning as intended. The fact that Laxman has been described as the sole communication channel between the two SSM teams underlines how fragile the current arrangement is.
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Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has publicly called for greater accountability in how player injuries are managed. Ashwin also pointed to a specific case to illustrate his concern.
“I think the time has come to make separate teams for Tests, ODIs and T20Is. There might be cross-pollination of one or two players. I think somewhere down the line there has to be accountability for injury management of players,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“I know that Varun Chakravarthy was at the NCA for the last three to four months. We were asking for permission for the TNPL, and they didn’t release him. He should have returned in a month, but he was there for two to three months,” he added.
