The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has taken away the authority from the captain and coach to take the decision on the players’ partners traveling on tours. From now on the office bearers of the board will be having the final say on the matter.
“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,” Hindustan Times quoted a BCCI official privy to the development.
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Previously, according to the ‘Family Clause of the Players Contracts’, the captain and the coach were given the authority by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) to take the final call on the wives and girlfriends (WAGs) of the cricketers traveling with them.
CoA had taken the decision in a meeting on May 21 last year which had stirred an uneasy situation in the Indian team’s dressing room. During the ICC World Cup 2019, the committee had reportedly denied permission to a senior player for his family to be allowed to stay with him outside the visiting period.
There were also reports that many senior members of the team were unhappy with one player breaking the ‘family clause’. Many players were also uncomfortable with the captain and coach getting involved in administrative policy decisions.
During the CoA meeting in May, Diana Edulji was the only member in the meeting who had expressed dissent. However, she has welcomed the new change and said this kind of issues create complications in a team environment and that the captain and the coach should be best left to focus on the on-field matters.