New Delhi: India’s poor performance in the Border-Gavaskar series has compelled the BCCI to think of putting a limit to the time wives and girlfriends could spend with cricketers on away tours.
India lost the five-match series 1-3 in Australia to surrender the BGT trophy after 10 years and failed to qualify for the World Test Championship for the first time since it began in 2019.
The abject surrendering of the trophy forced the BCCI to convene a review meeting attended by skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Yashasvi Jaiswal in Mumbai on Saturday.
According to a report by Dainik Jagran, it was decided in the meeting, which was attended by BCCI president Roger Binny and new full-time secretary Devajit Saikia, that wives and family could accompany the players for a limited period of time on away tours.
BCCI officials believe that their presence throughout the Australian tour that stretched over two months affected the performance of the Indian players.
BCCI set to re-introduce rule
Hence the board is likely to bring back its rule that was discontinued during COVID-19 pandemic, with an official informing the Hindi daily that wives and family members won’t be allowed to travel with players for the entire tour.
As per the new directives for duration of time limit, WAGS could stay with the player for a maximum of 14 days for a tournament or a series that stretches for or over 45 days. For shorter tours, the stay limit is reduced to only seven days.
The board is also likely to enforce strictly its rule of not allowing any individual player to travel separately after witnessing tendency of some players to travel separately instead of boarding the team bus.
“Keeping in view the team unity, now all the players will travel by the team bus only. No matter how big a player is, he will not be allowed to travel separately,” report said.
Gambhir’s manager pulled up
The BCCI also put an end to the access of Gambhir’s manager Gaurav Arora to the team. In a first in Indian cricket, Arora has travelled with the team on tours.
But he wouldn’t be allowed to share team hotel or allowed to board team bus and sit in VIP boxes in stadiums from now on.
BCCI officials believe that their presence throughout the BGT tour, which stretched over two months, affected the performance of the Indian players. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
