Team India to have new physios, trainers

The Indian team will soon have new physios and strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches, who will be part of a dedicated Sports Science & Sports Medicine (SSSM) team headed by Nitin Patel.

The BCCI will be making a plethora of recruitments for its SSSM team which includes physios and trainers (S&C) for Team India (men and women, junior (men and women), A teams as well as dedicated "rehab specialists" working on injury managements.

Both physios and S&C coaches have two categories of recruitment in which category 1 constitutes working with senior men and women's teams while those in category 2 will work with junior men and women and domestic cricket.

However, one of the interesting aspects of the new appointment is the enhanced role of rehab specialists and performance analyst among S&C coaches at the NCA for which applications had been sought.

One of the key operating environment that BCCI has clearly mentioned is an interesting one.

"Dealing with players who may be non-compliant or non-motivated regarding injury prevention and performance enhancement programmes."

The BCCI in the past has dealt with a lot of players who have not taken their rehabilitation seriously and literally made NCA their "second homes" as the joke would be in Indian cricket circuit.

However, things changed post Mahendra Singh Dhoni was captain and later with Virat Kohli's take-over of Indian men's team when fitness became paramount.

With the new NCA coming up and operations likely to increase manifold, it is understood that Patel, who has been travelling with the team as the head of SSSM will be the key person to implement the long term vision and under him a dedicated team will be working.

Most of the current Team India and NCA staff are expected to reapply and get back into system.

"The BCCI is committed to provide a high-performance environment for its athletes. As a part of a developing Sports Science & Sports Medicine (SSSM) team the S&C Coach will play a key role in contributing and providing support to players both on and off the field to enhance their performance," states the job description.

"The candidate will be an integral part of a multidisciplinary team providing optimal injury management & injury prevention services to athletes contracted with BCCI as National team representatives or select members from," it further stated.

The last date for application is March 9.