After frustrating World Cup exit, BCCI relaxed ‘family clause’ for West Indies tour

BCCI has taken a major step to give a bit of a relief to the players who were going through a stressful time after losing the semi-finals to New Zealand in the recently concluded World Cup. The Indian cricket board has come up with some changes in the family clause during the West Indies tour of India. Team India players are currently taking getting prepared for the South Africa T20I series, which is set to start from 15th of September.

Earlier before leaving for the World Cup, BCCI had a dialogue with the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of administrators (COA), head coach and the captain of India where they came up with a clause that players were allowed to keep their families along with them for a limited amount of time during the mega-event. As per that rule, families were not allowed to hang out with the players for the first 20 days of a long tour, but after that, they can come and join them.

There was news that a senior player flouted this rule and kept his wife for all seven weeks along with him during the World Cup, after getting a denial from the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which had laid down the rules.

BCCI relaxes the clause

Now, BCCI has come up with relaxation for the players in this clause to keep their families along with as per their will with no time hurdle. This renewal came up when India landed onto the Caribbean soil just after the World Cup. According to TOI, the players were allowed to have their families with them during the entire tour of West Indies.

A top BCCI official told TOI that “It was felt that the players went through a stressful period during the World Cup. The West Indies tour got underway shortly after that. It was important to allow the players to have their families around them. The long and busy home season starts immediately after the West Indies tour and the families find it tough to travel around within the country,”

This provision was for every player as there were different teams for every format. Although there were very few players who stayed back for all the three formats and Virat Kohli was one of them. The Indian skipper took full advantage of this relaxation given by the BCCI and was open about having his wife around for almost the entire duration, putting up photos on social media.

~ Written by Jasvinder Singh