Team India have been struggling due to an injury crisis, with several players, including the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, missing from action. Bumrah and Sai Sudharsan were ruled out just before the two-Test series against Sri Lanka. Washington Sundar is also not available. The growing injury list has put the  BCCI Centre of Excellence under pressure, forcing its head VVS Laxman to defend the facility.

However, the former batter revealed that the board is finding it hard to hire the right people at CoE. His statement surprised Mohammad Kaif, who couldn’t believe that top medical professionals don’t want to work with the richest cricket board in the world.

“Laxman said that they were in touch with several people, but they refused to accept the job at the last minute. This concern needs to be fixed. The people appointed by the BCCI should solve the issue. It is impacting the system and the team,” Kaif said.

“So many people want to come on board when it is about the BCCI because we have money.

They will come running if we call them. Just look at the players of other countries. They leave international matches to play in the IPL. I was surprised that we couldn’t convince some of the world’s best physiotherapists and medical professionals to work for us. I am surprised because we pay so much. We offer good contracts, and people are paid a lot of money for working with the BCCI,” he added.

The team management has felt Jasprit Bumrah’s long absence from the India National Cricket Team. He missed the series decider against England, and the Men in Blue lost the contest.

Kaif wants the decision-makers to avoid such a situation in the future.

“We are not taking injuries seriously. We conceded 387 runs when Bumrah didn’t play at Lord’s. It was the series-deciding ODI, and we lost the assignment. I feel this needs to be stopped. Everyone needs to sit down and come up with a solution,” he mentioned.

During the press conference, Laxman said that Andrew Leipus was approached for the post of the Head of Sports Science, and he even gave his nod before saying no at the last moment.

“After Nitin’s departure, we couldn’t fill the position. Andrew  Leipus was interested, and he had a few meetings with Devajit but backed off due to family reasons.

We conducted interviews with  Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, Dr Ashish Soni and a few others. Five candidates were shortlisted, with an Australian being the front-runner. We selected him, but he refused to come to Bengaluru,” Laxman said.