Former Indian cricketer VVS Laxman is set to continue serving as the chief of NCA Bengaluru for at least another year. Laxman was appointed in December for a three-year term and was to complete his tenure in September 2024. However, because of some other engagements at the NCA, he cannot take up a contract with an IPL franchise that had approached him for recruitment.
A good contingent of coaches, including some well-known domestic players such as Shitanshu Kotak, Sairaj Bahutule, and Hrishikesh Kanitkar, is expected to back Laxman.
This extension is lined up on the backdrop of the planned inauguration of the new NCA facility in Bengaluru. As for the new campus, the foundation stone of the new campus was performed by the former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) – Sourav Ganguly, the secretary Jay Shah, and Laxman in February 2022.
The existing NCA India is based in Karnataka at Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium and was set up in 2000 with the aim of developing young cricketers destined to become members of the national team. It also serves as a fitness and rehabilitation centre for players nursing injuries.
As captain of the team, Laxman has carried on the policies of his predecessor, the charismatic Rahul Dravid. The one key area likely to emerge as a heady issue in the near term will be how to re-energise the India A tour program, which has not been very active in the last couple of years. During Dravid, separate home and away tours for India ‘A’ were organized frequently.
Laxman played 134 test matches for India and scored 8,781 runs at an average of 45. 97, including 17 centuries and 56 half-centuries, and the highest individual score of 281 runs. In the One Day Internationals (ODI), he gave 86 performances, during which he scored 2,338 runs with an average of 30. He scored 76 in the match, along with aggregating six centuries and ten half-centuries, his best score being 131.
