The BCCI Center of Excellence treated 32 top cricketers last year

rough rana, hardik pandya, jasprit bumrah New Delhi: The Indian Cricket Board’s (BCCI) injury management program at its Center of Excellence (CoE) has been revived for the past 20 months. Now, according to the annual CoE report accessed by TOI, as many as 32 top players in the men’s team, including 20 BCCI centrally contracted players and 12 players in the new targeted/India ‘A’ category, underwent injury rehabilitation between April 2025 and March 2026. The list swelled after IPL 2026, with at least two players dropped in each series.Interestingly, the report states that the BCCI has increased the budget of the Council of Europe by nearly Rs 35 crore compared to the actual expenditure in the previous financial year. Council of Europe expenses include administrative costs, course costs and matches.The Council of Europe’s projected expenditure for 2026-27 now stands at Rs 127 crore compared to the actual expenditure of Rs 92 crore last year.India’s Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir have spoken about how difficult it has been to plan the tour due to the rise in injuries over the past year. While the report does not state the number of times each player reported to the CoE, it said that injuries of 68 players across genders were treated and managed by the BCCI-CoE Sports Science Medicine (SSM) team.As for the nature of the injuries, they were mostly soft tissue injuries. The only impact injury treatment mentioned was that of Rishabh Pant, who underwent treatment following a broken foot sustained during the Manchester Test in July 2025.Interestingly, the report also reveals that Rohit Sharma underwent rehabilitation at the CoE during this period, but the BCCI never made an official statement about it. Rohit last reported to the CoE due to a hamstring injury after this year’s IPL.The latest Team India players to be added to the list till September 30 this year are Virat Kohli, Varun Chakravarthy, Prince Yadav and Harsh Dubey, apart from a few ‘targeted’ players. From this list, Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Hardik Pandya and Prasidh Krishna have repeated. Rana, Pandya and Reddy have spent at least four months each in the CoE in the last 18 months.No SSM head, lack of coordination with Team IndiaBCCI advertised the post of SSM chief in the Council of Europe only last month. The position has been vacant since the resignation of Nitin Patel in March 2025.TOI understands that there has been a communication breakdown between Team India’s SSM team and the SSM CoE team, with cricket head VVS Laxman as the only means of communication. It is understood that Team India’s strength and conditioning (S&C) coach, Adrian Le Roux, suggested several tweaks to workload management routines in June 2025, while the CoE was reluctant to deviate from its own mechanisms.SSM CoE staff traveled to domestic tournaments to monitor India’s key players as part of an injury prevention and management programme.The last time Indian cricket saw a spate of soft tissue injuries was in 2021-22, when players suddenly abandoned playing in bubbles during the Covid-19 pandemic. At that time, the problem was brought under control in two to three months. Also in 2017, there was a three-month phase where several players broke down after S&C coach Shanker Basu introduced drastic changes in the fitness programme.Fifteen planned camps did not take placeAccording to the report, 15 out of 57 budgeted camps and tournaments did not take place in the last audited year.The Council of Europe conducted 25 elite/high-performance camps across age groups and genders, apart from special camps for North-Eastern states. She has also organized several courses and camps for S&C coaches, other coaches and match officials.Thirty-seven of the best men’s players opted for the “training block” program.The CoE has started a program called ‘training block’ for contracted and targeted/Indian ‘A’ players. According to the report, 37 players, including 11 contract players and 26 India ‘A’/target players, have benefited from the programme, which focuses on strength and skill training.