The BCCI made sweeping changes to Indian cricket team's player regulations in the wake of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 debacle.
Cracking the whip against the players, the Indian board implemented a stringent 10-point guidelines, including making participation in domestic tournaments mandatory and limiting travel of wives and girlfriends on overseas tours.
However, star batter Virat Kohli has expressed his reservations over the BCCI’s recent diktat regarding how much time men’s cricketers’ families can spend with them on international tours
According to the new rules, families can stay with players for up to two weeks during a tour lasting 45 days or more. This meant no player got that privilege in the recently held ICC Champions Trophy unless they made their own arrangement or took the board’s prior permission.
“It is very difficult to explain to people how grounding it is to come back to your family every time you have something intense happening on the outside," Kohli said at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit.
“I don’t think people have an understanding of what value it brings. I feel quite disappointed about that. People who have no control over what is going on are kind of brought into conversations and put out in the forefront. Maybe they need to be kept away," he added.
Kohli also explained why has he stopped sharing personal pictures, videos and achievements on social media platforms.
“Posting about us winning the Champions Trophy is not going to increase the happiness in my heart. They all know that we’ve won the trophy, so me posting about it is not going to give us two trophies. The reality is going to stay the same. I look at it like that. People saying ‘oh, you’re amazing’ in the comments doesn’t matter," Kohli stated.
“Technology when not attached to a goal can be quite distracting. It is something I have experienced in my playing career. Luckily, I grew up in a time when you didn’t have this thing in your pocket (hinting at a smartphone). It is much easier to keep it on the side… I don’t engage and post a lot these days and people are not happy about that. It is something that I have consciously tried to do. To keep up with that for me was way too much. It was taking away a lot of energy from me because I could utilise that in my game or life," Kohli said, explaining why he chooses to stay off social media.
