Sachin is out of action with yet another injury. Since his Test debut in 1989, the ace cricketer has missed about 70 matches on account of injury. M S Unnikrishnan writes about the injury-marred career of the master blaster and the need for more sports medicine specialists in the country.

Kapil Dev and P.T.Usha never missed a sporting contest on account of injury. Kapil Dev sat out for just one Test during his illustrious career, spanning 131 Tests, for non-cricketing reasons when Sunil Gavaskar was the captain. P T Usha, at her peak, rarely complained of any serious injury, which required her to skip an athletic meet.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is a Rs 200-crore one-man cricket industry. He rakes in crores in endorsements and sponsorships, outside of match fees. No other Indian cricketer has commanded such a price and pull among corporate sponsors before or after him.

The halo surrounding Sachin’s image is ethereal — the kind very few international cricketers can boast of. When Sachin suffers an injury, it creates tremors in the corporate world. Much faith and money have been invested in the cricketer that it is inconceivable to think of an international cricket match sans him.

Sachin has the image of an enduring player whose forte has been class and consistency. Yet, ironically, Sachin has missed around 70 matches on account of injury at various stages of his career, spanning nearly 14 years, since his Test debut against Pakistan at Karachi in 1989-90. His injuries seem to be contagious, moving up and down from one part of the body to other — from back spasms to toe and finger injuries to tennis elbow.

Injuries to top-flight sportspersons are not rare. It, in fact, is a common phenomenon. From Dennis Lillee to Imran Khan, and Diego Maradona to Andre Agassi, every high-value sports star has, at one time or the other, has faced injuries.

India, though, has had glorious exceptions in Kapil Dev and P.T.Usha, who never missed a sporting contest on account of injury. Kapil Dev sat out for just one Test during his illustrious career, spanning 131 Tests, for non-cricketing reasons when Sunil Gavaskar was the captain. P T Usha, at her peak, rarely complained of any serious injury, which warranted her to skip an athletic meet.

Recurring injuries

Sachin’s recurring injuries have now become a matter of routine, and no one is surprised when he is injured. Various reasons — from using a heavy bat to the pressure of playing international cricket on a sustained pace for over a decade — are attributed to his present ailment — tennis elbow. An overdose of cricket seems to have taken a toll on the master batsman.

Do sports stars feign injury? "They don’t feign an injury, they cover up injuries," notes sports medicine specialist Ashok Rajagopal. Sports stars cover up their injuries to protect their place in the team. Many cricketers have hidden their injuries to ensure their selection, which, in a way poorly reflects on the coach and the manager. The coach and the team physiotherapist should constantly monitor the players’ fitness. "A complete sports medicine evaluation can detect hidden injuries," says a noted specialist.

Tennis elbow

A "tennis elbow" is an inflammation of the bone on the elbow. In medical parlance, it is called lateral epicondylitis.

"Anyone can develop a tennis elbow as the injury is caused by an activity involving one’s grip movement or forearm use. Tennis elbow can surface without any warning," says Dr P.S.M. Chandran, sports medicine expert and chief medical officer of the Sports Authority of India.

Dr Chandran says that a tennis elbow can manifest over a period of time without any symptoms, though the effect of the injury could be sudden.

"But tennis elbow settles itself if you give rest to the elbow from the activity which precipitates pain (in Sachin’s case, batting)," explains Dr Chandran.

So, Sachin’s tennis elbow should get cured with proper rest, but it is reported that he is contemplating ‘laser therapy’ in Australia.

The incidence of Sachin getting injured at crucial junctures of India’s cricket campaigns abroad seems to be falling into a pattern.

His first major brush with injury was in 1998 when he sustained a back problem during the Chennai Test against Pakistan in 1998-99. The injury kept him out of 10 ODI matches that followed the Test series against Pakistan.

A couple of years later, he developed an ankle injury and had to miss the ODIs against Zimbabawe during the Indian team’s tour of that country in 2001-02. He ‘sprained’ his right ankle at a net session, forcing him to miss four matches against New Zealand in New Zealand in 2002. Due to a finger injury, he missed five ODIs in Dhaka, immediately after the World Cup in which he was adjudged the player of the series. And, a toe injury had kept him away from three Tests and seven ODIs against Sri Lanka in 2001.

Though there is nothing new about Sachin having an injury yet when he is struck by one, he comes in the spotlight. Such is his pull as a player. Statistics speak volumes for Sachin’s class as a cricketer. He has struck 13415 runs in 339 ODIs with 37 centuries and 69 half centuries at an amazing strike rate of 85.99. He has also taken 128 wickets at an average of 44.91. In 114 Test matches, the master has scored 9470 runs, studded with 33 centuries and 37 half centuries. He has also captured 35 Test wickets and cupped 72 catches. He is just one century away from Gavaskar’s world record of 34 tons.

Steve Waugh (32) and Don Bradman (29) have been pushed to the third and fourth spots. Sachin is a precious commodity for Indian cricket though, lately, he has been struggling with his form. His big knocks have not really helped India win many matches but have definitely bolstered his personal milestones. The common refrain nowadays is "whenever Sachin shines, India lose".

When Sachin made his Test debut at the age of 15 plus, he displayed amazing maturity in tackling pace batteries of the kind of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, and the wily spinner Abdul Qadir. When Sachin got going, he set the stands ablaze. The opposition did not really matter. But the sparkle of yore is missing in his game now.

Recurring injuries may be one of the reasons. Or, perhaps, the pressure of playing at the highest level, year after year, and delivering is taking its toll.

The highest run-getter in ODIs did not figure in the International Cricket Council (ICC) awards announced recently, and his name also did not figure among the ICC’s World XI Test Team of the Year. It must have been some small consolation that he found a place in the ICC one-dayer XI.

If Sachin feels pressurised, it is only expected. And these events do definitely have a cumulative effect on the player, in the long run. For, Sachin thrives on performance, and the name and fame that come along with it.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has spent large sums on Sachin’s treatment under various specialists in the world — from South Africa to England, and from Australia to the United States.

Common phenomenon

Sachin is not the only cricketer battling with injuries. Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan has been grappling with an injury to his bowling shoulder for quite some time. Laxmipathi Balaji too is out of the ICC Champions Trophy due to injury. Injuries have regularly dogged another pacer, Ashish Nehra, and spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

Football star Baichung Bhutia is also recovering from an injury, which forced him to sit out of the World Cup qualifying match against Japan in Kolkata recently. One of the common factors resulting in sports injuries is lack of fitness, over-training and inadequate recovery. Not going for permanent treatment complicates matters. Neglecting trivial injuries can prove costly.

There are a number of instances of injuries crippling the career of many an Indian sportsperson. Hockey star Jugraj Singh is yet to regain his form after suffering multiple fractures in a car crash over a year ago. The promising career of long jumper T C Yohannan ended at a jumping pit in the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, in the early 1970s. Yohannan, father of Test medium pacer Tinu Yohannan, was deemed as the country’s best bet in long jump after he won the gold, clearing over eight metres, in the 1974 Asian Games at Tehran. Yohannan did not get due treatment for his knee injury. The improper medical attention cut short a brilliant career.

Shortage of specialists

Lack of expertise in sports medicine was cited as the reason for Yohannan not regaining full fitness, though he was treated at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Improper treatment also killed the hockey career of Olympian custodian Charles Cornelius, who injured his knee at the preparatory camp in Jalandhar, prior to the Olympic Games at Melbourne, 1976.

There is, indeed, an acute dearth of sports medicine specialists in the country who can promptly diagnose an injury and suggest the correct line of treatment. Only a handful of doctors like P.S.M. Chandran and orthopaedic surgeon Ashok Rajagopal of Delhi, Anand Doshi of Mumbai, Thomas Chandy and Hemant Kalyan of Bangalore, David Rajan of Coimbatore and Prateek Gupta of Gangaram hospital in Delhi have taken sports medicine seriously. And, of course, doctors in the SAI, Army and the Central Reserve Police Force keep treating sports medicine injuries.

"Sports medicine training in India is rudimentary. You need advanced training courses to attract more young doctors to the subject," suggests a noted surgeon. At present, only Government Medical College, Patiala, in collaboration with NIS offers a diploma course in sports medicine. And not more than two or three doctors opt for the course every year. Ever since the course was introduced in 1987 for post-MBBS students, only around 60-odd doctors have opted for the course.

And out of these, just around 12 doctors are pursuing sports medicine as a full-time vocation. "You have to attract more youngsters to this speciality by introducing sports medicine as a subject in more and more medical colleges," asserts Dr Chandran.

Dr Rajgopal gave a fresh lease of life to the sports career of badminton ace Pullela Gopichand. Gopichand suffered from multiple ligament injuries but treatment for over eight months under the care of Dr Rajgopal enabled him to win the All-England Championship.

"Unless you deliver on time, you cannot have a competent line of treatment," Dr Rajagopal says. He feels that the creation of more institutes for sports medicine courses is the only remedy to turn out more specialist doctors.

"In our country, sports medicine has taken root but its progress has been slow because of inadequate facilities as the vast potential of medicine is not understood by those involved in the promotion of sports," notes another doctor.

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