Former India batter VVS Laxman on Sunday, 9 August reflected on his tenure as head of cricket at the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, naming the shift to a world-class 40-acre facility on the city's outskirts and the Indian women's team's maiden 2025 ODI World Cup triumph as the defining moments of his stint. Laxman has led the high-performance centre since December 2021.

A Landmark Infrastructure Shift

The CoE's relocation from its original base at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium to a sprawling 40-acre campus on Bengaluru's outskirts was, according to Laxman, the first and foremost highlight of his time in charge. 'First, realising and being part of the vision converted into actual execution has been the highlight. Because we were operating from that facility at the Chinnaswamy, which was great, and it still contributed towards a lot of cricketers. But this is an unbelievable world-class infrastructure. So I was part of that transition,' he said at a press conference on Sunday.

Laxman underscored that the new campus now hosts players from under-15 and under-16 age groups all the way up to elite contracted players, and remains fully occupied from April to September each year.

Women's World Cup Win: The Emotional High Point

Laxman described the Indian women's team's 2025 ODI World Cup victory as 'probably the high point' of his tenure, revealing that head coach Amol Muzumdar and captain Harmanpreet Kaur personally invited him to join the on-ground celebrations. He watched from the BCCI box and was, by his own account, among the last to leave the venue. 'Any vision you set in, any goal or ambition you establish, and if that bears the fruit, you feel really happy about it,' he said.

Laxman acknowledged that women's cricket had initially been outside his comfort zone, but described his four-and-a-half years of involvement with the women's programme as something he will 'treasure.'

Player Development and the Kohli Benchmark

Beyond trophies, Laxman emphasised that the CoE's core mandate is process-driven development. 'Trophies are a byproduct of what systems, the processes you set,' he said, adding that the focus remains on building systems that can be objectively evaluated. He singled out Virat Kohli as an 'exemplary professional' whose standards and work ethic serve as a benchmark — what the CoE terms its NFDC parameters — for younger players across age groups.

Managing Workloads and Rehabilitation

Laxman cited all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy as a specific example of the CoE's approach to workload management, noting that the demands on a fast-bowling all-rounder are particularly high across formats and franchise cricket. He stressed that pre-season screening is 'very, very important' and that players must learn to use competitive breaks productively for fitness maintenance, given the near-absence of a traditional off-season.

The Bronco Test: A New Fitness Tool

A notable addition to the CoE's fitness battery is the Bronco test, introduced to measure anaerobic capacity during active series — filling a gap left by the Yo-Yo test, which is considered too physically taxing to administer mid-tournament. Laxman described the Bronco test as functioning simultaneously as a conditioning session and an indirect fitness assessment, applicable across all age groups throughout the season. 'That is something which can be repeatable,' he noted.

As Laxman's tenure draws reflection, the infrastructure and programme foundations he helped lay are expected to shape Indian cricket's high-performance pathway for years ahead.