“In three years since I took up the assignment, I have never spoken about my role and what we do here.”
An ever-smiling VVS Laxman jokes while getting up after a 45-minute interaction focussed on the BCCI’s (Board of Control for Cricket in India) newly-inaugurated Centre of Excellence on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
The legendary cricketer – now Head of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) – spelt out everything in his new avatar and also shared his and the BCCI’s vision for the Centre of Excellence.
Excerpts:
On the perception about the NCA – now rechristened as the Centre of Excellence
There is a misconception that the cricketers come only for rehab. But they come to the NCA to also upskill, get ready for the challenges in the various series they are going to participate in. I am sure that all the players who come to this facility and are part of these programmes will strive to achieve excellence. And in the process, the Indian cricket team in all the formats will be probably the best in the world.
On the targets for the completion of the project
The target for completion was 15 months. I was a bit skeptical, but the way work has progressed right from the time construction began has been remarkable. I have been to some of the best academies in the world, not only limited to cricket but other sports also. But I have not seen this kind of a facility.
A lowdown of the facilities at the Centre of Excellence
It’s a dream come true for all the players. Someone like me who has played for the country at the highest level, I think it is a very important moment. This kind of infrastructure, with three world-class grounds, with three different soils - red soil, the local soil from Karnataka, and the soil from Odisha - and then the practice wickets, which again have got three different soils there, close to 45 practice wickets, including five cement tracks. And then we have got the indoor facility with close to 10 lanes. Apart from that, we’ve got a world-class Sports Science & Medicine (SSM) building.
Sports science has become an integral part, not only in Indian cricket but in sports. And it is not only about players getting injured and recovering on time, but it is also about maintaining the highest level of fitness standards and also recovery, which is very, very important with the busy schedule the Indian cricketers have. So, a lot of importance has been given to the recovery part.
Apart from that, also for coach education, because as you all know that NCA focuses a lot on developing not only cricketers but also coaches. And we have got programmes from level 0 to level 1, level 2, level 3, and hopefully next year we will try, I mean that is an ambitious project of ours where we want to introduce level 4. Apart from that, we will even have a bench strength for performance analysts, bench strength for physiotherapists, bench strength for SNC, Strength & Conditioning coach.
Even the coach education department is remarkable, so the infrastructure is world-class and I just hope that everyone who comes here will benefit from this initiative of the BCCI. I would like to thank BCCI for giving so much of importance to this infrastructure and I am sure a lot of cricketers, a lot of other professionals involved in the game will benefit from this infrastructure.
With the upscaling, if you have to make out three things at the Centre of Excellence, what will they be?
The programmes we run, because the way the programmes run, all the best performers right from your Under-15 for women and Under-16 for boys are selected by the national selectors and from April, during the off-season, until September, we have various programmes.
We conducted close to 32 camps during this period for both boys and girls, but usually these happen in different parts of the country. And with the KSCA, we get the ground to have some of these camps. Whereas here with three grounds, I think we can have a lot more programmes. Also, these grounds can be used to have some India A series, which can be played on these surfaces here.
The most important thing is, there are three different kinds of soils. What we want is the players to know how to adapt to different conditions. So, in one place, instead of them travelling from one city to another city, they can have the experience and exposure of playing in different soils and different kinds of pitches, you know, which will enhance their performance.
On the rehab mechanism
The idea is to prevent injuries. And that’s why there’s been focus on recovery and setting fitness standards; it’s very, very critical. In fact, what we have done over the last two years is to standardize the fitness procedures right from top to bottom. It’s not only the Indian cricket team, but even the state teams.
Everyone knows how to maintain those fitness levels and what kind of programmes, what kind of sessions they are required to do to achieve those fitness standards, so that when they come to the national team, they are not starting from scratch. As far as the skill is concerned, everyone may be different, but the fitness standards can be maintained, so I think both are very important, because you are required to upskill. Only then can you progress. Anyone who is stagnating and with the amount of data and analytics that we have at our disposal, a player can be easily found out.
If a player is fit, if a player’s fitness standards are improving day by day, automatically his performance will also be enhanced, so both of them are very, very critical.
A day in the life of VVS Laxman, the NCA head
When I took up this role in December 2021, obviously I was very reluctant. But once I embraced this position and role, it’s been such a satisfying and fulfilling experience. You are dealing with not only the established international stars but you are creating the bench strength. And that has been very, very fulfilling, to see the amount of talent, to see the amount of potential at our disposal.
The whole idea is how to monitor them, how to groom them, so that they realize their potential. For that, I have got a wonderful team. We have the Head of Education, Sujith Somsundar, Head of Sports Science, which is Nitin Patel. And then I have got unbelievably experienced coaches. We got two spin bowling coaches - Sairaj Bahutule, Rajiv Dutta, three batting coaches - Apurva Desai, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, and Sitanshu Kotak. One fast bowling coach - Troy Cooley, very experienced. And two fielding coaches – Munish Bali and Subhadip Ghosh.
Typically, we discuss, we plan, we brainstorm and come up with the necessary programmes so that the young deserving players get an opportunity, exposure to develop as cricketers. Then there are various coaches who go out and execute that. Not only the coaches who are on a full-time basis with NCA, we have coaches across the country who come to the ZCA camps. After every ZCA camp, we have a tournament and then the best performers from that tournament are selected for the NCA camp, which is the High Performance Camp.
It’s a non-stop grind and it’s quite satisfying, it’s quite fulfilling. Through this ZCA tournament, we also rank the coaches, and one of the expectations I have from the coach education department is how do we create the bench strength of coaches. So, we know who is our number one batting coach, number two batting coach, same with the bowling, spin bowling, fast bowling, and fielding for both men and women. So, there is a system where we are ranking the physios, we are ranking the S&Cs, we are ranking the performance analysts, we are ranking the coaches, so that anyone is not stagnating.
Everyone is recognized for their contribution and everyone is progressing in their respective careers. It’s great that everyone has embraced what we are trying to achieve along with the State associations because we do a lot of workshops with the State associations. We upskill the physios, the S&Cs, the performance analysts, the coaches by having various workshops with the State associations. Everyone has been collaborating with what we are trying to do. The whole idea is from top to bottom, right through our First-Class ecosystem, age group ecosystem to what the national team is doing.
On ensuring young cricketers aren’t confused with different styles of coaching at local level and at NCA
For any player, we give options. It’s not that we dictate to them that you have to do this or you have to change. No, it’s the options, and ultimately the player should feel comfortable acknowledging and accepting that option.
If he feels that that’s working for him, he will embrace it and he will continue to use it through the season. The whole objective is to give that exposure to the player. And the other thing which we have done is monitoring the players, both men and women.
When Rahul (Dravid) was the head coach of the Indian team, Rahul used to take care of the contracted players, and we at the NCA used to take care of the targeted players. Then we had the emerging players and then the Under-19 players. So, we used to take care of them throughout the year.
They used to come for the camps, and once they go back to their respective State association, we used to monitor them. And every coach would have at least 10 players to monitor, so one spin bowling coach like Sairaj would have 10 spinners under him and he will monitor their progress.
We know what areas they are required to work on. Through the year, we make sure that the player is working. We collaborate with the coaches back in the State, and the majority of those coaches are part of our ecosystem through the summer programmes. It’s always a very open and inclusive way of working. It’s not that we are telling something different, and suddenly the player is finding it totally different when he goes back to the state association.
I think the information is passed, and the communication channel is very transparent and open. We also have something known as the athlete management system (AMS), where all the players who come and attend the ZCA camp and the NCA camps have a profile created for them. Right from their reports of skills to fitness to the musculoskeletal screening report, we have got mental conditioners who come and work with them. Every report of that player is there in the AMS.
We are going to even request the State associations to follow that process. At least 50 players of each State association, 25 men and 25 women, should be on the AMS because we have done a lot of work to make AMS quite proactive.
The whole idea is, if a player comes to NCA or is part of any ZCA camp, five or 10 years from now, his file should be there. We also will know how the player has progressed, and it will become very easy for anyone who is taking care of that player to know what the player has gone through every year. That is the inclusive kind of programme we want to implement.
The biggest part here is the player. Everything is player-centric, and we want the player to benefit. We don’t want the player to get confused, and we don’t want the player to suddenly feel the burden of whose advice he has to listen to. So, I think everything is inclusive. We take into confidence the State association coaches because ultimately, the State association coaches spend a lot more time with that player than we do. We just get one month with them; the rest of the year, the State association coaches take care of them, so it is a nice collaborative effort we are doing.
On challenges of readying cricketers for workload and handling pressure
As far as junior cricketers are concerned, as I said, we have got mental conditioners who come. They spend eight to 10 days out of the 30-day camp or 25-day camp with the players, understanding their strengths and the areas they require to work on. They give tools for the players to go back and work. For me, and if you ask any cricketer who has played for a long time, ultimately what you think in between your two ears makes a massive difference, so we give a lot of importance to the mental aspect of the game.
There are three professionals for both men and women who come and work with the players. As far as the fitness part is concerned, the recovery part is concerned, or the SSM (Sports Science and Medicine) part is concerned, one of the main challenges was how to standardise. A player who is at the NCA or when they are doing the ZCA camps or when they are with the Indian teams, when they go back to the State association, how can they continue to work on the fitness level with the same intensity they do when they are in these camps or with the Indian team?
Credit to the state associations that they have also started investing a lot in their sports science team. That’s why we tied up with ASCA, which is the Australian Strength and Conditioning Association. They come, and we did a level 1 and level 2, which is your beginners’ and intermediate programme for the last three years. We are also trying to upskill the S&Cs.
We also do workshops for the physiotherapists. When a player goes back to their respective State association, they know what to do. Managing their workload there, with the amount of cricket we play throughout the year, and the majority of the State players play all three formats. Very few States have a different team for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and a different team for Ranji Trophy. A lot of them play all three formats, and it’s from one tournament to the next and to the next. The sports science team at the State association level are also very good as far as knowledge is concerned, experience is concerned, and there is a nice integration and a collaborative oneness between the SSM department at the NCA and the State association SSM departments.
Focus areas in camps at the NCA
One thing we do in our camps is challenge the players by giving them a used wicket and creating a situation where they are playing the fourth or fifth day of a Test match. We challenge them with the instruction, “We want you to play along the ground, no lofted shots.”
These kinds of situations promote adaptability, helping players adjust to various scenarios and conditions they will encounter at the highest level. Additionally, the A team gains valuable exposure by playing in those conditions. The whole idea of the A programme is to ensure that when players graduate to the highest level, they are ready for those conditions.
Sometimes, if there is a tour just before the main international series, players from the main series may join the A team. Playing in those conditions and understanding them is always beneficial, providing players with the opportunity to be prepared for international series.
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