The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Need for correct remedial guidance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2006
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Sport - Cricket

Need for correct remedial guidance

Rehab centres will help all sportspersons, writes Makarand Waingankar

Injuries in sports cannot be avoided. Some may be freak, but most of them take place because of carelessness. Either a player is not aware of the wrong positioning that puts pressure on the body or he is not bothered about the repercussions wrong positioning can cause.

The worst thing is we do not have even one top quality sports rehabilitation centre in India.

For a player to get back to match fitness, he has to undergo rehabilitation under the guidance of a team of experts in a centre. But due to lack of such facilities in India, the Indian players are sent to Australia.

With the BCCI earning Rs. 250 crores and disbursing Rs. 25 crores each to all the associations for infrastructure development, shouldn't the BCCI be setting up sports rehabilitation centres of international class?

Though the focus seems to be on producing top class stadiums, a few sports rehabilitation centres would definitely be beneficial to injured cricketers.

In 2003, the National Cricket Academy decided to train physiotherapists on sports injuries under the guidance of former Indian team physio Andrew Leipus and more than 50 attended the course.

The associations were then expected to utilise their expertise but due to politics, most of the associations appointed physios of their choice.

There are associations who insist on asking the trainers to double up as physios or vice-versa.

Qualified physios

Leipus felt that unless the qualified physios gain experience treating players when they are with the team, the certificate would be of no value. But the BCCI never insisted on associations appointing these qualified physios.

The Mumbai opener Vinayak Mane suffered a fracture of his left forearm that was operated and fixed with steel plates. Later during a Ranji Trophy game, Mane suddenly felt a depression on the forearm resulting in pain and inability to bat. All tests were normal. Even after the removal of plates, there was no recovery and a shattered Mane had to rush to Australia to get the forearm operated again and undergo proper rehabilitation. He lost a season.

Salil Ankola had no other option but to act in films as he too was operated twice on his shin and, without proper rehabilitation, was unfit. Again, had there been a good rehab centre, Ankola would have continued to play the game. In such cases where additional operations had to be performed, the fact remains that the second operation had to be performed because the first had reportedly some flaws.

Not the same again

Ashish Nehra and Balaji suffered injuries when they were doing well. Coming back, they are not the same bowlers that they were and that is putting them under pressure. To get back the rhythm is not as easy as one thinks, especially after injury. The mental make up of a player undergoes a change during the layoff.

Dr. Anant Joshi has been advocating sports rehabilitation centres for quite some time. In fact, he feels that there should be both fitness evaluation and fitness norms for the players.

We have different yardsticks for different players, and that is evident when unfit players take the field. With the setting up of sports rehab centres in India under the guidance of Dr. Anant Joshi, not only would the cricketers gain a lot but also other sportspersons could take advantage of it.

Unless we have sports rehabilitation centres, getting a foreign physio to travel with the team is not going to be enough. He will have no Indian back-up, neither individual nor infrastructure. We need the individuals and the infrastructure made ready so that players will not lack for correct remedial guidance for injuries. It is a serious matter and the earlier the BCCI addresses the issue, the better it will be for the future of Indian cricket.

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