BCCI To Decide On WAGs Request, Not Virat Kohli And Ravi Shastri

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has now come to a firm conclusion that any cricketer request to have a partner accompany him outside the visitor spell of a tour has to initially go through the office-bearers. With the Indian national cricket team set to depart for New Zealand later this month, any deviation from the visitor-period for partners will now be examined by BCCI officials.

Earlier, in an unusual policy update, BCCI authorized captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri to decide upon specific player requests for additional family time for WAGs on tour, a decision taken by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) last year.

During the ICC Cricket World Cup in England, players’ families were given a 15-day window after the first 20 days of departure from India. However, many in the cricket fraternity predicted that such an unusual policy would create internal dispute within the team.

BCCI to decide on WAGs request, not captain and coach

A senior BCCI official on the condition of anonymity told HT on the much-talked family clause pertaining to players’ WAGS (wives and girlfriends) on tour. “Any individual request will have to come through the office-bearers. It’s not a big matter, but this is clearly the best way to do it,” he added in a statement.

The Committee of Administrators took this decision in a meeting on May 21, last year. “The authority to approve any visits from visitors outside the Visitor Period should vest with the Team Captain and Coach, and this should be reflected in the Family Clause of the Players’ Contracts,” read the minutes of that important meeting.

However, the decision caused a debate due to the fact that many players were not comfortable with the skipper getting involved in an administrative policy decision.
During the World Cup in England last year, the Committee of Administrators did not grant permission to a senior player for his family to be permitted outside the permissible visitor spell.

CoA member identified as Diana Edulji said: “These issues can become complicated in a team environment, and these decisions are best left for the administrators to take. The captain and the coach should be allowed to focus on cricket and the manager keeps tab of these things on tour. With the BCCI run by office-bearers again, they should take the call,” she said.

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