Follow UsIndian head coach Gautam Gambhir has come out in full support of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s revised travel policies, which place restrictions on the presence of cricketers’ families during overseas tours.
The new rules were implemented after India’s 3-1 loss in Australia and state that immediate family members can join the team only after the first two weeks of a tour exceeding 45 days and cannot stay for more than 14 days. On shorter tours, families are allowed to stay with the players for up to a week.
While some former and current players, including Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, have expressed disappointment over the updated regulations, Gambhir appears to have no issues with them.
“Families are important, but you’ve got to understand one thing. You are here for a purpose. It’s not a holiday. You’re here for a huge purpose,” said Gambhir ahead of the third Test at Lord’s, as quoted by the Indian Express.
“You’ve got very few people in that dressing room or in this tour that gets this opportunity to make the country proud. So yes, I’m not against not having families with us.
“It is important to have families, but if your focus is towards making our country proud and you have a much bigger role than any other thing, and you’re committed to that goal, you’re committed to that cause, I think everything else is fine. But for me, I think that cause and that goal is more important than any other thing.”
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli had previously voiced his concerns during IPL 2025, emphasising the emotional importance of having family around.
“It’s very difficult to explain to people how grounding it is to just come back to your family every time you have something which is intense, which happens on the outside.
“I don’t think people have an understanding of what value it brings to a large extent. And I feel quite disappointed about that because it’s like people who have no control over what’s going on are kind of brought into conversations and put out at the forefront that, ‘oh, maybe they need to be kept away’.
“If you ask any player, do you want your family to be around you all the time? You’ll be like, yes. I don’t want to go to my room and just sit alone and sulk. I want to be able to be normal. And then you can really treat your game as something that is a responsibility. You finish that responsibility, and you come back to life."