Today in Bengaluru, Secretary of the BCCI Devajit Saikia held a meeting with VVS Laxman, Head of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) and the following members of the BCCI's Leadership Group: Mithun Manhas (President), Rajeev Shukla (Vice President), Prabhtej Bhatia (Joint Secretary) and Shiv Sundar Das (Selector).
During this meeting, the BCCI Leadership Group discussed the potential to introduce technical staff within the CoE, e.g., instructors in both sports science and education, as well as enhancing the pathway for both U-19 and U-23 Boys Tour athletes of India.
Saikia told PTI:
“We assessed the vacancies at CoE and decided to go ahead with the recruitment process soon. There is an acute shortage of technical personnel worldwide, but we are trying to fill the positions at the earliest. We also talked about how the A tours need to be scheduled going forward. In certain situations, the A side and the senior team are touring together at the same time. We need to ensure that there is no overlap. A tour is an important supply line of cricketers.”
Due to the tension surrounding the release of Mustafizur Rahman by Kolkata Knight Riders for the 2026 IPL from both the BCCI and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), when asked about whether the BCB would allow Eleven Bangladesh to travel to India for the T20 WC 2026 as part of the agenda of their meeting, Saikia said that this issue did not arise during their discussions today.
The BCCI secretary said:
“The meeting was about CoE and other cricketing matters. It’s not our domain to talk about that (as the ICC has the final say on Bangladesh’s participation in the T20 World Cup).”
