Mumbai: Team India’s 0-3 home drubbing at the hands of New Zealand last September-October, followed by the 1-3 defeat in Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia early this year prompted the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to crack the whip and introduce a 10-point policy to be strictly followed by all its centrally contracted players.
The directives include a significant reduction in family time during overseas tours. It spelt out that players who are away from India on national duty for more than 45 days, may be joined by their partners and children (under-18) for one visit per series (format-wise) for up to a two-week period.
Senior pro Virat Kohli, who is often accompanied by wife Anushka Sharma and their children on foreign tours, recently made his displeasure clear about the BCCI’s much stricter SOPs, saying that all cricketers would like their near and dear ones with them when they are travelling.
Well, Kohli’s message has fallen on deaf ears.
BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia made it clear on Wednesday that there will be no change in its current guidelines for Indian players on overseas tours.
“At this stage, the current policy will remain intact as it is of paramount importance to both the nation and our institution, the BCCI,” Saikia said in an interview with Cricbuzz.
“The BCCI recognises that there may be some resentment or differing opinions… in a democratic setup people are entitled to express their views. The policy is applied uniformly to all team members — players, coaches, managers, support staff, and everyone involved — and has been implemented with the best interests of everyone in mind,” Saikia added.
Last week, Kohli made no bones about what he felt about BCCI’s family policy.
“If you ask any player, do you want your family to be around you all the time? They’ll be like, ‘yes… I don’t want to go to my room and just sit alone and sulk. I want to be able to be normal’. And then you can really treat your game as something that is a responsibility. You finish that responsibility, and you come back to life,” Kohli said at a Royal Challengers Bengaluru event in the buildup to IPL 2025.
The IPL is a marathon tournament, lasting more than two months. But that’s not a problem as the T20 league is being played in India among different franchises, hence there is no bar on players’ wives and girlfriends travelling with them.
It will be the England tour, soon after the IPL ends, that Kohli and others will be thinking about. India will be playing five Tests and a couple of practice games, and the entire tour will last seven-eight weeks. As per BCCI’s SOP, players can have their partners and children for a maximum of two weeks.
