The Hindu : Sport : Time for a proper management plan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Sport

Sport

Time for a proper management plan

Unless the importance of rehabilitation centres is realised, the frequency of injuries is unlikely to reduce, writes Makarand Waingankar

While the Indian cricket team is away in the West Indies, millions of Indians, whether in India or abroad, were following the news about Sachin Tendulkar coming out of the MRF Pace Foundation during the past one week. To connoisseurs and keen followers of the game, it meant a lot.

Before going to Chennai, Tendulkar had a net in Mumbai, with his cricketing friends and a few young Mumbai cricketers, without the media probing his movements.

He enjoyed every minute of it. Playing shots with ease, laughing like a 15-year-old, running with enthusiasm between the wickets and at the end of a three-hour gruelling practice, Tendulkar spent an hour talking to youngsters who were seeking his advice to their technical problems.

All the time watching from close distance, we felt Tendulkar had indeed made up his mind to join his colleagues in the Caribbean. When Tendulkar decides, his body follows. It has always been like that. We should know on Tuesday the outcome of the hours of efforts that he has put in for the past two weeks.

Rehabilitation centres

The sports medicine fraternity, however, taking Tendulkar as a case study, has urged the BCCI to get more sports rehabilitation centres established with trained physios and trainers. Had there been a better-networked availability of facilities like rehabilitation centres and qualified experienced trainers at several major metros in our country, Tendulkar need not have gone to Chennai.

The sports medicine section is a specialised one and to treat physios and trainers on par is a big mistake the BCCI is making. They are as different as the difference between a gynaecologist and an orthopaedic.

Anant Joshi, an eminent sports medicine doctor, firmly believes that until people concerned with sports realise how important a rehabilitation centre and roles of physios and trainers are in sports, the frequency of injuries is unlikely to reduce.

Lack of inclination

Though the BCCI has made it mandatory for all the States to have trainers and physios for the junior as well as senior teams, majority of the associations, despite having NCA-trained persons in this field, either don't show the inclination to hire them or ask the trainer to double up as physio or vice versa.

This does affect young cricketers. The young trainees who are selected at the NCA, Bangalore for a month camp are unfit when they arrive despite fitness schedule being sent to the selected lot in advance.

Injury management is in a terrible mess in India with the growing tendency to move away from the uniform methods of fitness. To old-timers on the cricket circuit, it is a big joke. To aspiring cricketers, it is a serious business that guides their career.

And when such a thing becomes the guiding factor, it is all the more reason for the BCCI to have minimum five zonal rehabilitation centres.

Setback for district talent

With the game spreading fast in the districts, huge talent from the districts is placing pressure on the urban boys. The biggest hindrance to the growth of these talented district boys is their lack of awareness of fitness measures.

As one young NCA trainee explained, all the fitness programmes they get to do at the NCA are impossible to implement when they return to their districts as they have neither the place nor the equipment to do so.

If Tendulkar, for lack of training facilities and expertise, had to go to Chennai from Mumbai, imagine the plight of a boy from Ranchi or Rae Bareli. That Dhoni and R.P. Singh made it to the National team is tremendous, but a proper injury management system in place would make fit players perform consistently.

As for goodwill, the BCCI would generate even greater goodwill by permitting the State players in other games to use the facilities at sports rehabilitation centres than by the generous Rs. 50 crores contribution that has been announced for helping other sports. What is crucial in injury management is the will to study, analyse and implement vital aspects. Lack of either interest or dedication in pursuing this path will simply make our country's sports healthcare infrastructure remain at its current ineffectual status quo.

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