Indian cricket star Virat Kohli has recently slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for its new guidelines restricting family time on tours following India’s disappointing 3-1 loss to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Under the BCCI’s new directives, players are permitted to have their immediate families, including partners and children, join them only for 14 days after the initial two weeks of tours that last over 45 days, NDTV reported.
For shorter tours, families can accompany players for up to a week.
Speaking at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit ahead of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, Kohli voiced his support for allowing players’ families to travel with them during tours, emphasising the benefits of emotional support in challenging times.
“It is very difficult to explain to people how grounding it is to just come back to your family every time you have something intense, which happens on the outside,” he stated.
“I do not think people have an understanding of what value it brings to a large extent. And I feel quite disappointed about that because it is like people who have no control over what is going on are kind of brought into conversations and put out at the forefront that, ‘oh, maybe they need to be kept away’.”
Virat said that no player would like to “sit alone and sulk” after a poor showing during a tour.
“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 said.
“Like, there could be different situations happening in your life all the time. And that allows you to be absolutely normal. Not in a vague sense, but in a very real way that you finish your commitment, your responsibility, and then you come back to your house, you are with family, and there’s absolutely normalcy in your house and normal family life goes on.
“So, for me, that is absolutely a day of immense pleasure. And I would not miss any opportunities to go out and spend time with my family whenever I can,” he concluded.
Kohli played a crucial role in India’s recent International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Champions Trophy victory, finishing as the team’s second-highest run-scorer with 218 runs in five matches.
He is set to compete in the upcoming IPL season with the RCB, starting with the opener against Kolkata Knight Riders on March 22.
