Indian cricketers WAGs now allowed to travel with partners after 10 days of tour
The CoA and BCCI have agreed to let the wives and girlfriends of Indian cricketers travel along with the team on overseas tours, provided they arrive after a period of 10 days. This decision comes after Virat Kohli handed in a request for the same to the BCCI in a meeting earlier this month.
A recent meeting held by BCCI officials and CoA members indicated that the Indian cricket board would follow the footsteps of Cricket Australia and chalk out a ‘Family period’ throughout the annual season. But CoA officials have now cleared Indian cricketers’ wives and girlfriends to travel along with their respective partners on overseas tours, but only after a completion of 10 days of the tour.
Earlier this month, Indian captain Virat Kohli had approached the BCCI to bring about a change in its policy to WAGs. Previously, BCCI used to regularly insist on a no-WAGs policy which was later changed to a policy that wives and girlfriends of cricketers, coaches and the support staff could tour for a period of two weeks. However, the Indian governing body has agreed to Kohli’s request as they see no harm in promoting such a policy in the near future.
The CoA arrived at the conclusion that cricketers tend to tour for prolonged periods of time and the presence of WAGs can only help create a better support system for the players, especially on foreign tours. The CoA had also met Kohli, coach Ravi Shastri and vice-captain Rohit Sharma in Hyderabad last week prior to the start of the second Test against the West Indies in a bid to have a word with the players before making a final call.
A few years ago in 2015, Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland had welcomed an identical move despite criticism then that presence of WAGs had contributed to Australia's Ashes downfall.