Despite Virat Kohli's complaint, BCCI says family policy for Team India players will not change

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary general Devajit Saikia has refuted reports that the cricketing body was willing to relax rules related to family members’ presence on overseas tours. The rumours of BCCI pondering to change its own 10-point diktat , which was only brought in earlier this year, started after a BCCI source claimed that players will need to seek the board’s permission for an extended stay of the family members and the “board will do their best” .

However, Saikia has refuted any such possibilities and underlined that the SOPs are of “paramount importance” and will remain intact at this stage.

BCCI confirms no changes to family policy for Team India

“At this stage, the current policy will remain intact, as it is of paramount importance to both the nation and our institution, the BCCI,” Saikia told Cricbuzz on Wednesday.

The reports of any possible change in BCCI SOPs was initially inspired by former India captain Virat Kohli’s scathing remarks that no players wants to “sit alone and sulk” in their hotel rooms on overseas tour.

“It’s very difficult to explain to people how grounding it is to just come back to your family every time you have something which is intense, which happens on the outside,” Kohli said at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit.

“I don’t think people have an understanding of what value it brings to a large extent. And I feel quite disappointed about that because it’s like people who have no control over what’s going on are kind of brought into conversations and put out at the forefront that, ‘oh, maybe they need to be kept away’.

“If you ask any player, do you want your family to be around you all the time? You’ll be like, yes. I don’t want to go to my room and just sit alone and sulk. I want to be able to be normal. And then you can really treat your game as something that is a responsibility. You finish that responsibility, and you come back to life,” he added.

The policy changes made earlier this year by BCCI after India’s disastrous tour of Australia states that family members and players cannot be together for more than two weeks on overseas tours.