India cricketers’ WAGs travel discord has left BCCI officials in disbelief

Issues in Indian cricket are never short of the surprise factor. After speculation of a rift between captain Virat Kohli and limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma did the rounds following India’s shock exit from the 2019 cricket World Cup, it is time for another controversy to snowball and it is about the cricketers’ WAGs.

Officials of the BCCI and former chief justice RM Lodha have expressed their displeasure over the Committee of Administrators (CoA) asking the captain and coach to decide on the WAGs’ travel schedule. And if that was not all, many have felt shocked over the news that a senior cricketer flouted the ‘family clause’ during the World Cup.

According to a senior BCCI official, if reports of a rift in the party were not enough, the stories over cricketers’ families travelling and violating the clause showed the state of affairs in the board and that it needed an urgent address.

“When things are mismanaged and authority and administration give way to fanboy decision-making – a quest for popular opinion and personal favours – the result can be disastrous,” the Quint cited reports as quoting the official.

‘Such a situation hasn’t arisen in the history of BCCI’

“Fighting over travel of WAGs? Such a situation hasn’t arisen in the history of the BCCI where now there appears to be a general state of discord and even the families of players are seen as fair game for criticism via different agents as has been reported.”

The official said that bizarre reports have started coming out over interference from certain family members of players or that someone’s family spent more time than permitted, etc.

“Earlier, during the IPL finals you had the wife of a very senior BCCI executive tell another senior IPL executive how he should conduct himself and this led to the BCCI executive receiving an earful from the IPL executive. There is general discord and breakdown and egos seem to be running the show with chips on every shoulder that you can see these days,” the official said, adding that these things have led to a loss of efficacy in the BCCI. He said this needs to be corrected through rules and not general ad-hocism.

Another official said that the blame game needs to stop and that rules need to be fair for all and should be consistently implemented.