MUMBAI: The
BCCI's
National Cricket Academy (
NCA) in Bangalore has refused to conduct pace bowler
Jasprit Bumrah's fitness test. The fast bowler was in Bangalore this week - after bowling in the nets with the Indian team in Visakhapatnam on December 16 - to undergo the mandatory fitness test ahead of a comeback.
The concerned team at the NCA - led by director
Rahul Dravid and physiotherapist Ashish Kaushik - "politely" told Bumrah that they would not be conducting the test. TOI understands that the Dravid-led NCA is "unconvinced" about how they can conduct the fitness test when Bumrah was consulting his own set of specialists on the way to recovery after he was diagnosed with mild back stress in September this year and had also flown to the United Kingdom to consult doctors.
TOI has learnt that Bumrah had conveyed to the team management that he was "not keen" on going to the NCA.
TOI tried reaching Dravid and Kaushik for their comments but they were unavailable to comment. Bumrah too could not be contacted.
There were media reports in November about how Bumrah had been consulting private specialists as he tried to chart his return. Those who saw him in Visakhapatnam a few days ago say "he's worked his way back to supreme fitness and is looking very good". To quote a senior member of the team management "Bumrah is like a mountain now. That's how good he's looking after the recovery process".
After the net session in Visakhapatnam, Bumrah flew to Bangalore to be at the NCA where his fitness test was scheduled. Dravid is learnt to have met the bowler on Wednesday and told him that NCA would not be conducting the test. Dravid's views were based on the simple logic that "if NCA hasn't treated Bumrah, how can it give him a certificate that he's fit to play? What if tomorrow something happens? How can the NCA agree to certify something about which it doesn't have a clue?"
The NCA's earlier decision was to invite Team India trainer Nick Webb to Bangalore to conduct the test for Bumrah. However, Dravid conveyed to Team India's assistant trainer Yogesh Parmar that Bumrah's fitness test would not be conducted at the NCA. "They have told him, 'you're fine. So there's no need of a fitness test. You should go and seek it from the specialists you've been working with because they're the people who have been testing you and know your fitness status the best", sources said.
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Bumrah's hesitation in heading to the NCA stems from the fact that some other players had not given a positive assessment about their experiences at the academy. In fact, some players called it "scary".
"He did not want to go there. Most senior players don't want to go to NCA. Instead of addressing that concern and understanding why players don't want to come there, the NCA is turning him away. That's not how we need to deal with a cricketer who's changed the face of India's pace bowling over the last two years. It was a sad day," add sources.
Meanwhile, sources at the NCA say "Rahul (Dravid) is still very new to the NCA. It's only been a few months since he's taken over. He's still trying to comprehend how things have been functioning at the academy. To be fair to the NCA, more than 200 cricketers from across the country come there to train and learn. It's not just about one or two individuals. Rahul is trying to put better systems in place".
However, right now, the bowler can't understand how exactly he is supposed to clear the mandatory fitness test, considering the NCA has refused him.
Bumrah's IPL franchise
Mumbai Indians too have always ensured that the bowler is adequately taken care of. "All the little details of how the bowler is at any given moment in time have been so important that even the owners at Mumbai Indians have minutely followed every development," said those in the know.