Cricket industry executives expressed approval of the BCCI’s controversial “10-point policy“ for Team India players by a slim margin.
In an exclusive cricexec poll, 56% of the industry felt that national boards should be able to regulate players’ lives on tour, including limiting families’ ability to travel and visit players.
BCCI Policy
The BCCI’s new policy, issued during the aftermath of the Border-Gavaskar test series loss, states:
“Players absent from India for more than 45 days during overseas tours may be joined by their partners and children (under 18) for one visit per series (format-wise) lasting up to two weeks. The BCCI will cover shared accommodation for the player and their family during the designated visitors’ period. All other expenses are to be borne by the player,” the document states.
“Family visits must be scheduled as a single visit on dates agreed upon by the coach, captain, and GM operations. Any deviation from this policy must be pre-approved by the Coach, Captain, and GM Operations. Additional expenses outside the designated visitors’ period will not be covered by the BCCI.”
Player pushback
Not surprisingly, there has been some pushback from players on this.
As India ODI and Test Captain Rohit Sharma stated at a press conference soon after (translated from Hindi)
“I have to sit down with the secretary to discuss about family travel guidelines. Everyone (players) is asking me.”
Even players from other countries have weighed in on this.
According to England international Jos Buttler:
“We live in a day and age now, which is a very modern world, and I think it’s great to be able to have families on the tour with you and try and enjoy that.. There’s a lot of cricket, people spend a long time away from home, and I think post-COVID, all that’s been highlighted as well. Absolutely, I don’t think it affects the cricket too much…
“I think it’s something that is very manageable. Personally, from my point of view, I think it’s really important to try and be able to share that with your family and lighten the load on being away from home,”
BCCI Response
The BCCI has unsurprisingly defended this policy. According to Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar:
“It’s not a school, it’s not a punishment. It’s just you have some rules, and when you are playing for the national team, you just follow the rules. These are mature individuals. They are superstars in their own right in international sport. They know how to handle themselves.”
“At the end of the day, you’re eventually representing your country, and there are certain things that you inherently follow as every team does. A lot of them have been in place, maybe we’ve spoken about it now and it has been put out, but a lot of them have been in place in any case. You keep on refining it as you go along. Eventually, what suits the team, you want to try and do that.”
As our poll response indicates, most of the industry is sympathetic to this perspective.
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Name of Author: Cricexec Staff
