No manager for Indian cricketer’s WAGs, says CoA

In a recent development, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) has turned down a proposal from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to depute an exclusive liaison officer for the Wives and Girlfriends (WAGs) of the touring Indian players.

Apart from Anushka Sharma, Ritika, Nupur, Nikita, Radhika and Romi, the wives respectively of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha among are currently in South Africa. They all have been permitted to stay with their spouses for two weeks. The deadline culminates after the ongoing Newlands Test.

Had the CoA given the go-ahead, the logistics manager would have been at beck and call of the WAGS, whose travel itinerary, internal travel and site-seeing, all would have been taken care of by him. The decision of veto was taken at a meeting in Mumbai on January 3. However, CoA’s ruling may now have unwittingly brought to the fore differences between administrators and BCCI, but board officials opined that is not true.

Such a plan was never put up for consideration before

The name of Mayank Parikh, BCCI’s logistics in-charge, was suggested before the CoA. But the Supreme Court-appointed administrators told the board management that there was no need since there is already one dedicated officer, Rishikesh Upadhyaya, who is travelling with the contingent. Parikh was initially supposed to leave Mumbai for Cape Town on January 4.

It still remains unclear if the proposal was an initiative of the BCCI or a request from the team management. The manager of the Indian team, Sunil Subramaniam, did not respond to the aforementioned dispute.

However, the development comes at an interesting time. Especially within weeks after the recent high-profile wedding of India skipper Virat Kohli with Bollywood diva Anushka Sharma. It could be just a coincidence but the fact remains that such a plan was never put up for consideration before.