Indian cricket star Virat Kohli recently slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for its new guidelines that limit family time on trips after India’s disappointing 3-1 loss to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
According to BCCI’s new directives, players have permission to have their immediate families, including partners and children, join them only for 14 days after the first two weeks of trips lasting over 45 days, Ndtv reported.
For shorter trips, families can accompany players for up to a week.
When talking at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit in front of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, Kohli expressed his support to allow players’ families to travel with them during trips and emphasized the benefits of emotional support in challenging times.
“It’s very difficult to explain to people how grounding it is to just return to your family every time you have something intense, which happens on the outside,” he said.
“I don’t think people have an understanding of what value it brings to a large extent. And I feel quite disappointed with it because it’s like people who have no control over what’s going on is kind of brought in conversations and pronounced at the forefront, ‘Oh, maybe they should be kept away’.”
Virat said no player would like to “sit alone and sulk” after a bad view 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 have finished this responsibility and you will come back to life,” he said.
“As there may be different situations that happen in your life all the time. And it allows you to be completely normal. Not in a vague sense, but in a very real way that you end your commitment, your responsibility, and then you come back to your house, you are with family and there is completely normality in your house and normal family life.
“So for me it’s definitely a day of tremendous pleasure. And I wouldn’t miss any opportunity to go out and spend time with my family when I can,” he concluded.
Kohli played a crucial role in India’s recent international cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Champions Trophy Victory and ended as the team’s second highest race scorer with 218 races in five games.
He is ready to compete in the upcoming IPL season with RCB, starting with the opener against Kolkata Knight Riders on March 22.
