- Tuesday, March 18, 2025
The legendary cricketer said, “Yes, you need family. But you also need a team, all the time”
By: India Weekly
LEGENDARY cricketer Kapil Dev is all for family travelling with cricketers on tours but has also called for a balanced approach in dealing with the contentious issue that has divided opinions.
Following India’s 1-3 Test series loss to Australia, the BCCI issued a directive limiting the duration of family visits on tours lasting more than 45 days, allowing a maximum of 14 days of family time.
For shorter tours, players could bring their families for a maximum of one week.
“Well, I don’t know, that’s individual. I think it’s the cricket board’s call,” said the 1983 World Cup-winning captain, speaking on the sidelines of the ‘Kapil Dev Grant Thornton Invitational’ event.
“My view is, yes, you need family. But you also need a team, all the time.”
During the recently-concluded Champions Trophy, players like Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammed Shami had their families with them in Dubai but did not stay at the team hotel.
The expenses for their stay were borne by the players, not the BCCI.
“In our time, we used to say to ourselves — not by the cricket board — that the first half of the tour should be cricket, and in the second half, the family should come and enjoy it too. It should be a blend,” said Kapil, who currently serves as the president of the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI).
Kohli bats for family
Kohli has expressed his support for the presence of players’ families on tours, stating he would always prefer having personal support around him to help navigate tough and intense days on the field, rather than being isolated in his hotel room.
“The role of family is 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,” said Kohli during RCB’s Innovation Lab summit which concluded here on Saturday (15).
“I don’t think people have an understanding of what value it brings.”
Kohli said having the family around would help a player to recover from on-field disappointments that much quicker.
“I don’t want to go to my room and just sit alone and sulk. I want to be able to be normal. Then you can really treat your game as something that is a responsibility.
“Not in a vague sense, but in a very real way that you finish your commitment and then you come back to your house, you’re with family, and absolutely normalcy in your house and normal family life goes on.
“So, for me, that is absolutely a day of immense pleasure. I won’t miss any opportunities to go out and spend time with my family whenever I can,” said Kohli.
The 36-year-old was “disappointed” because people with no real connection with such issues have been involved in such discussions.
“I feel quite disappointed about that because it’s like people who have no control over what’s going on are brought into conversations and put out at the forefront of that — ‘oh, maybe they need to be kept away’.
“And if you ask any player, do you want your family to be around you all the time? You’ll be like, yes,” he said.
