Why has the BCCI decided to limit WAGs' stay on tour?

Why BCCI has banned WAGs from overseas tours?

Good news is that finally the BCCI has decided to take some proper cricketing decisions. Sitanshu Kotak as India’s batting coach is a brilliant appointment, for he is a top coach who has risen through the ranks. Hopefully his role will not be limited to giving throwdowns only.

India lost the Test series in Australia because of lousy team selections, bad strategy, wrong tactics, poor technique on seam-friendly pitches and ensconced deadwood in the squad. Players falling prey to the same old technical problems weren’t addressed. At the review meeting that followed the Australia tour, the BCCI seemed to be more focused on setting out some new HR protocols. Limiting the time players spend with their families on tour was one of them.

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As per the new rule, which is set to be implemented, wives-and-girlfriends (WAGs) can be with the players for no more than 14 days on tours of 45 days or more. On shorter tours, the duration that families can accompany players is up to a week.

This is actually serving the old wine in new wineskins. The rule has been there for donkey’s years and the relaxation came during the Covid-19 pandemic, when players were allowed to make their families part of the team bubble, with an eye on mental health. It needed an embarrassing series defeat for the BCCI to return to the old ways.

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Dressing-room discord was an issue in Australia. According to sources, there was a breakdown in communication, which sort of led to Ravichandran Ashwin’s mid-series retirement and his subsequent return to India. There were hardly any team-bonding meals and if the dressing room wasn’t fractured, it had cliques. Players moved with their families or in separate groups, with some of them, according to reports, occasionally making their own travel arrangements and not taking the team bus.

Virat Kohli, when he was the India captain, had requested the BCCI via then head coach Ravi Shastri to relax the norms as regards the presence of families on tour. There’s a school of thought that the presence of families is an impediment to better team-bonding. It also disturbs a focused environment. The counter-argument is that some family time on tour allows players to be in a better mental space.

Different sports associations have dealt with this issue for long with varied results. For example, the Pakistan Cricket Board had implemented a strict no-Wags policy at the 2019 World Cup. It made the players disgruntled and Pakistan failed to reach the semi-finals. The England football team WAGs turning Baden-Baden into a go-to place for paparazzi during the 2006 World Cup was widely criticised. The ‘golden generation’ failed. The Brazil football team, on the other hand, benefited from the Wags-ban at the 2019 Copa America, as they won the tournament. The focused environment helped.

Over the last few years, the Indian team players got used to having their families around on tour. The BCCI’s new WAGs-policy could be a culture shock for them. Then again, after back-to-back Test series losses against New Zealand and Australia, strict parenting probably has become the need of the hour.