Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia met with the head of BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE). VVS Laxman and discussed the roadmap for the centre’s future course. The meeting, held at the BCCI headquarters at the Stadium, was also attended by other BCCI office-bearers, including President Mithun Manhas and vice-president Rajeev Shukla.
“Had a fruitful meeting with VVS Laxman, Head of BCCI’s Centre of Excellence, in the presence of BCCI office-bearers today at Mumbai. Reviewed current activities and charted the roadmap for the Centre’s future course, aimed at further strengthening India’s cricketing talent pipeline,” BCCI secretary posted on Facebook.
Earlier, Saikia dismissed reports claiming that Laxman is set to replace Gautam Gambhir as head coach of Team India after poor performance in red-ball cricket.
VVS Laxman succeeded former Indian head coach Rahul Dravid as the head of the CoE in 2021. The BCCI (Indian cricket board) has invested a lot of time and energy into developing the Under-19 squad. There has been a renewed focus on developing players at the CoE (Centre of Excellence), the future stars of Indian cricket, including many talented players such as Ayush Mhatre and other U19 cricketers.
A year or so ago, the BCCI announced that it would expand the Centre of Excellence (CoE) to better develop young cricketers, allowing them to develop in a world-class facility where everything they needed to succeed would be available.
The recent, humiliating loss of the Under-19 India team in the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup raised questions about the work of the CoE. There have also been reports of the BCCI top brass being unhappy with Gautam Gambhir over the team’s recent poor performances, and were thinking of replacing him with Laxman. However, some reports also claimed that Laxmanws reluctant to leave their current post as CoE chief and take up a job that would also involve a lot of travel.
IANS
