The Indian cricket team is currently going through a busy schedule these days and Captain Virat Kohli isn’t visibly happy with the Indian Cricket Board’s (BCCI) travel plan.
Just a few hours after playing the third and final ODI against Australia in Bengaluru on Sunday, January 20, the Indian team left for the New Zealand tour and Kohli expressed his displeasure at the BCCI’s tour scheduling just after arriving in New Zealand.
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The right-hander on Thursday (January 23) made 'landing at the stadium' remark in the press conference on the eve of the first T20I against the Black Caps on Friday, Jan 24 in Auckland.
Kohli said during the presser, “It's getting closer and closer to landing at the stadium straight. That's how compressed the gap has become. This kind of traveling to a place that is seven and a half hours ahead of IST is difficult to adjust immediately. Hopefully, this will be taken into consideration in the future. But this is the year of the World Cup and every T20 is important. So we can't lose our focus.”
Reacting to Kohli’s remark, a BCCI functionary has defended the scheduling while insisting that Kohli has the right to express his views, but the board always tries to make the best possible travel plans keeping in mind the best interest of the players.
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He told IANS, “He has every right to raise a point, but to be fair, all travel plans are made keeping in mind the interest of the players. If you see, we tried to space it out as much as we could post the World Cup when we played at home and the boys were also given a break during Diwali. It honestly made more sense to be flying to Auckland from Bengaluru than the team regrouping after a break.”
Meanwhile, another BCCI official said Kohli or other players should have spoken to the board secretary rather than in the media if they had any issue regarding the tour, as the planning for the New Zealand series was done during the tenure of the Committee of Administrators.
The official stated, “The schedule was tight, but I don't see what the problem is when it is a schedule made under the Committee of Administrators and supervised by the CEO. Should this issue not have been raised with them considering the fact that they seemed to be on each other's speed dial?”
He signed off by saying, “Even if he would have raised the issue with the BCCI Secretary, it could have been addressed. While Kohli is free to express himself the way he wishes to, there's a system that needs to be followed for resolution of issues and the core of the system is communication.”
(With IANS Inputs)
