BCCI Doesn't Have A Sports Science Head Since 2025, VVS Laxman Explains Why

As injuries continue to tighten their grip on Indian men’s cricket, the attention has turned to the Sports Science department at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. The department, which is meant to do research around player injuries and work with the cricketers to give them the quickest and safest return to competitive play, is without a permanent head since Nitin Patel left it in March 2024.

Dhananjay Kaushik, the senior physiotherapist, is currently leading the role and is under scrutiny because as many as ten international cricketers are at the CoE undergoing rehab, with some there because of recurring injuries and hasty reintegration. On Sunday, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia flew to Bengaluru to speak to the head of CoE VVS Laxman

and take a stock of the situation.

There, Laxman explained the delay in replacing Patel.

“We are divided into four verticals,” he said. “After Nitin left, we did not get anyone who can fill in that position. We had Andrew Leipus, and everything was agreed upon. In fact, Devajit had two or three meetings with him, but suddenly Andrew backed off citing family reasons.”

Laxman said moving to Bengaluru, where the CoE is based, was one of the mandatory criteria for the candidates who applied for the post, which was not being fulfilled.

“We conducted a full-fledged interview process where we had Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, Dr. Ashish Soni, Dr. Rohan Khavte and myself, and we shortlisted five candidates and number one was an Australian. After selecting him, suddenly he also backed out, saying he cannot move to Bangalore, and it was one of the important conditions.

“It is a full time job and it is not a part time one. It is day to day monitoring. That professional did not join. Another professional was the head of sports science at All Blacks (New Zealand rugby team) and we engaged with him and he almost agreed but at the last moment he also backed off,” he added.

Laxman said that even though the CoE team has ‘stepped up’ well in response, the search is ongoing.