Key Points

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) John Gloster, the former physio of the Indian cricket team, has lauded the move to introduce the high-intensity Bronco Test for assessing players in the men’s side, adding that it will help in accurately evaluating athletes. Recently, the BCCI had posted a video on their social media accounts, where current S&C coach Adrian le Roux explained how it would benefit players in the current set-up. “I love it. I think it's a really good test. I think it's a great test. As I said, I've used it at Rajasthan Royals for many years to not just test our athletes, but also train them. Because if you look at where cricket is now, it's a speed-based, power-based sport. That is one of the tests that helps us to evaluate our athletes accurately through that testing mechanism,” said Gloster in a conversation with IANS on the sidelines of the PlayCom 2025 summit on Saturday.

While highlighting that cricket can benefit from taking learnings from other sports, Gloster, the current head physio of Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL, revealed that he has used the Bronco Test in evaluating players in the ten-team T20 competition.

“You will have all heard recently about the Bronco Test that they're starting to use in the BCCI, something we've used for a long time in IPL. But again, that's taken from another sport because we think it's going to benefit our sport of cricket,” he added.

Gloster, who served as physio of India’s national team in the early 2000s, believes technology has the power to be a great friend in injury management, especially with cricket now becoming a sport being played throughout the year.

“Technology is a huge player for us, particularly in the world of cricket, where I do use it for load monitoring, management, athlete management systems, and data tracking. We're tracking through wearables. We're tracking insights into the athletes themselves from heart rate variability to sleep.”

“So, for us, it's all about having more insight. The more I know about you, the more I can help you. So, technology underpins pretty much everything we do now in elite sport. Without that, we don't have insight. India is one of the leading tech nations. So, I'm proud to say that we've managed to bring that into sport and we're starting to use it more and more efficiently.”

“I think technology is now going to become a very good friend in this space to monitor load, to forces, health, wellness, and recovery. So, we're becoming a lot better at recovery. We're seeing that almost as a secret sauce now in terms of performance.”

“So, unpacking the recovery space a lot more has become a real focus for us in not just cricket, but in all sports. So, one needs to be open to technology and the other be open to looking at other sports that can help us on our journey going forward to develop cricket and bring it into the performance space in this country,” he elaborated.

Gloster also feels that the sports science and injury management scenario in India has been hugely evolving. “Rapidly progressing, thankfully. Certainly, when I first came here 21 years ago, it was a very different scene. Underappreciated, underacknowledged, and resource-wise, very thin on the ground.”

“Whereas now, we're starting to see more and more people, particularly in my profession, sports physio, sports science, sports medicine, now starting to build out the ecosystem of support for our athletes and the general community also in India.”

“So, thankfully for us, we now are in a position where we can say that we do not yet have a robust system to support, but we're getting there. We've got a long way to go, but the journey has started.”

He signed off by talking about his work with India’s non-cricket sportspersons, especially working with 11 athletes in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics. “It's become my big passion now. It's at two ends of the sporting pyramid. Obviously, I'm very passionate about the sports education space and getting more kids into the sports education system through our PE structure in schools.”

“Then, obviously, at the pointy end of the pyramid with our Olympic athletes and Paralympians and through my relationship with Go Sports Foundation, I've been able to work with some of the best athletes in the world outside of cricket.”

“It gives me enormous pleasure to see these athletes who've come through a system generally without a lot of support, but still made their way to the top. So, I see that being really exciting because the more and more we can support these athletes, we're going to get a lot more coming out onto national and international podiums for us.”

- IANS