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Indian men’s cricketers’ families reportedly won’t accompany them to the UAE for the 2025 Champions Trophy due to BCCI’s new policies.
Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma (L). Rohit Sharma and Ritika Sajdeh (R).
Indian men’s cricketers’ families reportedly won’t accompany them to the UAE for the 2025 Champions Trophy, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s diktat has started to take shape.
The BCCI’s new policies, which came into being after the team’s big 3-1 series defeat in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, prevent families from traveling to tours that are shorter than 45 days in duration. Even for tours longer than that threshold, families are allowed to accompany for two weeks for every 45 days.
The Champions Trophy will begin on February 19 while India’s campaign will begin on the following day against Bangladesh. India’s matches will take place entirely in the UAE as the rest of the matchups go as planned in the primary host country, Pakistan, under the hybrid model agreed by the boards.
“If anything changes then it is different but as of now, the players are unlikely to be accompanied by their wives or partners for this tour,” news agency PTI quoted an official as saying. “One of the senior players had enquired about it and he was told that the policy decision will be followed. Since the tour is of less than one month, families won’t be accompanying the players. But if exceptions are made, I think that individual will have to bear the full expenses as BCCI won’t be covering any cost,” the official added.
The BCCI policy document was leaked to the media. It reads, “Players absent from India for more than 45 days during overseas tours can be joined by their partners and children (under 18) for one visit per series (format wise) of up to a two-week period. Any deviation from this policy must be pre-approved by the coach, captain and GM Operations. Additional expenses outside the visitors’ period will not be covered by the BCCI.”
However, the report added, that families will be there with the team during the five-Test tour of England in June-July-August after the IPL 2025 season. The window for their two-week stay during the trip will be worked closer to the tour.
The official quoted in the report also said that most other rules mentioned in the diktat, like the provision of making domestic cricket participation mandatory, and the team traveling together for matches, have been already enforced.
“If you look at it, already no player can ask for a private vehicle to come for practice. All state units have been notified. Similarly, once the players assembled in Kolkata (for the T20I series against England) and Nagpur (for the ODI series against the same side), the team has traveled together,” he said.
The report concluded by saying that having restricted travel of personal chefs and secretaries for the players, the BCCI is now planning to get a few chefs on board to meet the dietary requirements of certain players.
