The BCCI is set to implement stricter protocols with the Indian cricket team, including limiting the time players spend with their families during the tour and prohibiting independent transportation of players while traveling to training and matches.
On tours of 45 days or more, players’ immediate family members (partner and children) can be with them for no more than 14 days and not at all during the first two weeks of the tour. On shorter tours, families can accompany players for up to a week.
These instructions have been part of player contracts, but were relaxed during the Covid-19 pandemic when players were given the option to make their families part of the team bubble, taking their mental health into account. .
India captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Gautam Gambhir and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar met BCCI officials in Mumbai on Saturday for the first time after the Australia tour. The team management was informed of the return to previous protocols.
Part of these protocols will also require all players to ride the team bus, a traditional practice that some players are said to have ignored in the recent past.
Currently, the BCCI pays for families’ accommodation during the trip, but not the trip itself. No changes will be made to that policy as long as the length and timing of the stay complies with the protocols.
Sports associations have long grappled with the question: Should partners and children of players be allowed to travel with them and for how long? Chennai Super Kings in the IPL is one example of the presence of families working for the team, but there have been countless examples of teams banning partners from team accommodation. Brazil won the 2019 Copa América when visits from its partners were prohibited. Then there is the case of Australian swimmers, who openly criticized a similar ban during the 2012 Olympics, complaining of loneliness and demotivation.
Indian cricket has had no fixed answers to this question. The last time there was talk of the presence of families was in 2018, when it was reported that the then captain Virat Kohli had requested to relax the rules.
The current coach, Gambhir, said India today then: “The opinion of the players varies. Only an individual can have an opinion because he has to play a test match. Some want the family to be there throughout the tour, while others want little family time and try to concentrate. Anyone Whatever the decision, it must be taken in the best interest of Indian cricket.”
