There is a lot of excitement in the corridors of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at the moment and the upcoming high level meeting to be held in Mumbai is going to prove to be very decisive for the future of Indian cricket. The eyes of sports lovers and experts are completely focused on what revelations will come out during the discussion between the top officials of the board and the selectors. The internal resentment that was going on regarding the disappointing performance of Team India in recent months, serious problems related to the fitness of the players and the rehab process, can now come out fully in this meeting. Amid complex circumstances like selection matters of the Indian cricket team, defeats on recent tours and frequent injuries to players, this meeting is likely to be stormy in many ways. When stalwarts like chief selector Ajit Agarkar, Center of Excellence chief VVS Laxman and head coach Gautam Gambhir come face to face on one stage, there are bound to be sharp questions and answers. The main objective of this meeting, to be held in the presence of Board Secretary Devjit Saikia, is not only to review but also to take tough and tough decisions for future strategies. Important meeting of BCCI to be held in Mumbai and review of the performance of Team India. A very important and high-profile meeting has been called by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on coming Thursday in the country's financial capital Mumbai, in which many burning issues related to Indian cricket will be discussed in detail. BCCI Secretary Devjit Saikia, Senior Men's Selection Committee Chairman Ajit Agarkar, Team India Head Coach Gautam Gambhir and BCCI Center of Excellence (formerly National Cricket Academy) head VVS Laxman are likely to attend this important meeting. The biggest focus point of this meeting will be the disappointing performance of Team India in the recent foreign tours, especially the matches played against Ireland and England. Tough questions can be asked from head coach Gautam Gambhir regarding the shameful defeat in the T20 series against Ireland and the team's poor performance in the T20 series on the England tour. A clear answer can be sought from the team management as to where the Indian team made strategic mistakes on these two important tours and what concrete action plan they have to overcome these shortcomings before the upcoming big international tournaments. Players' ever-increasing fitness problems and Ajit Agarkar's anger The biggest and most sensitive issue of this high-level meeting will be the Indian players' continuously deteriorating fitness and frequent injuries. For some time now, the way star players have been getting injured one after the other and there has been a need for last-minute changes or replacement in the team, it has given the selectors sleepless nights. According to the news coming from inside sources, Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar is said to be very angry with the continuous fitness problems of the players and the methodology related to rehab. This is the reason why during this meeting to be held in Mumbai, there can be a heated discussion and conflict between Ajit Agarkar and Center of Excellence head VVS Laxman on the issue of fitness clearance of players. The main question being raised is that when a player returns to the field after undergoing a long rehab process and fitness tests at the Center of Excellence, why does he immediately get injured again. Repeated injuries to key players like Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Hardik Pandya have raised serious questions on the coordination between the Indian team management and the selection committee. Serious questions will be raised on Hardik Pandya's fitness and the reason for delay in recovery. At the center of this entire fitness debate, the case of star all-rounder Hardik Pandya is expected to be the most important. Hardik's fitness has been a matter of constant concern for the Indian team for some time now. When Hardik Pandya's name was selected in the Indian team for the ODI series played against Afghanistan in June last year, his selection was completely subject to his fitness clearance. However, he later had to pull out of that series at the last moment due to a serious quadriceps injury. Since then, many questions have been burning in the minds of the selectors regarding the speed of his recovery and the long time taken to regain fitness. A tough question can be raised in the meeting as to why there is so much delay in his recovery process and why it is taking him so long to become completely match fit. This is the reason why he has not been included in the Indian team for the upcoming T20 series against Afghanistan. Not only Hardik, but young all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and many other players are also in the same uncertain phase of fitness, due to which the selection committee now wants complete transparency on the clearance received from the Center of Excellence. Why four players 'Subject to Fitness' in T20 series against Afghanistan? This ongoing difference of opinion between the selection committee and the Center of Excellence got further fueled when recently the Indian team was announced for the upcoming important three-match T20 series against Afghanistan. The selectors have included match-winning players like Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy in this team, but the final availability of these four is completely dependent on their fitness clearance i.e. 'Subject to Fitness'. This one decision has raised a big question in front of the selection committee that why did it have to select four players together for the same series on such dubious conditions? Is there a huge lack of communication and coordination between the selectors and the Center of Excellence regarding the physical condition and fitness of the players? If a player is not fully 100 per cent fit yet, then what should be the basis for taking the final decision regarding his selection and are hasty decisions disturbing the balance of the team? VVS Laxman and the team management may have to answer all these sharp questions in this meeting. There will be a long discussion on VVS Laxman's rehab process and return-to-play protocol. On the other hand, VVS Laxman, head of the Center of Excellence, has already presented his methodology in detail regarding the players' rehab and fitness process. According to Laxman, whenever a national-level player gets injured, the entire process starts from the precise identification of his injury and goes through various stages till he is officially declared fully fit for 'return-to-play'. Despite this, frequent incidents of injuries to players on the field level have put a big question mark on this entire established process and its standards. The biggest practical problem for the selectors is that when a key player suddenly gets injured before the match, they are forced to announce a replacement midway through the series, which not only completely disintegrates the team's bowling and batting combination, but also spoils the strategic plans in important matches. This is the main reason that this high-level meeting to be held on Thursday is not going to be limited to just reviewing the defeat in a few matches, but there will be a serious brainstorming on the entire fitness structure of Indian cricket, workload management and the working style of the rehab centres.
