Former Australian cricketer Michael Clarke disagrees with the latest guidelines put forward by the BCCI for Team India. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has recently released some guidelines for the team where they have decided to limit the presence of family members.
The guidelines were issued in the wake of the shock defeat to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India lost the Test series 1-3 and also failed to qualify for the World Test Cup final.
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Michael Clarke highlights gray area in BCCI’s new guidelines
While speaking on ESPN’s Around the Wicket segment, Michael Clarke expressed concern over BCCI’s decision to limit family presence during tours. He finds it difficult to find a balance with families on tour as some players have wives and children.
“One that was difficult for me, because throughout my career we’ve gone both ways with players, wives and partners who were only allowed sometimes, not allowed sometimes, and then we were allowed all the time,” Clarke said.
“The balance was difficult. You have guys who were older, who are married with kids, you have guys who are single,” the former Australia captain added.
Michael Clarke further asked if a player could bring someone to the hotel bar for a drink. He claimed that there was no balance in this guideline and raised questions about it.
“So from a team perspective, if partners aren’t allowed to come over all the time, is a single guy allowed to bring someone back to the hotel bar and have a drink with her? Where’s the balance?” he claimed.
“I don’t know how it’s going to work. I just think it’s very sensitive because it’s harder for some people to be away from home,” Clarke noted.
“Indian culture is very different from Australian culture” – Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke also spoke about the new BCCI guidelines where the board has made it mandatory for every player to play domestic cricket whenever he is available. Clarke was surprised to see the rule as he finds it incomprehensible in Australian cricket.
“It shows that the Indian culture is very different from the Australian culture. Because many things in the Australian team are incomprehensible, they are given as part of that international environment,” Clarke noted.
“First-class cricket, for example, is great for me. Our domestic system is strong, and that’s because the players generally come back when they can and play Sheffield Shield Cricket, BBL, One-Day, whatever,” he noted.
India’s star cricketers in the Ranji Trophy
The BCCI has introduced a ten-point guideline for centrally contracted players. One of those guidelines was to make domestic cricket mandatory for every international player whenever available.
In accordance with this guideline, no. star cricketers like Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli have confirmed their availability for the second phase of the Ranji Trophy.
