The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is preparing a new set of rules to restrict the presence of players’ girlfriends during the Indian Premier League (IPL) amid concerns within the board about the effect on team discipline and the league’s image.
According to Indian media reports, the concerns first surfaced after several top cricketers, including Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan and Arshdeep Singh, were spotted with their girlfriends at team hotels, with the partners also accompanying them on team buses.
“We are discussing this among ourselves. It will be discussed in the next BCCI meeting. There is no problem with wives and family members staying in the hotel with the players, but we will have to be a little more serious about girlfriends,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by Indian media.
They added that girlfriends were not allowed to stay with players at their hotels during earlier seasons of the league as well, but now it had become a trend.
Indian media reports said the situation was already causing practical problems as team buses recently ran late because of said partners. This, reports added, was considered by the board a serious issue that could not be left unaddressed.
Another concern pertains to the partners’ being social media influencers, with some having promoted betting applications as well. The BCCI fears this creates a real risk of sensitive team information leaking out, whether deliberately or not, and has already briefed its anti-corruption unit on the matter.
The board noted that IPL franchises are privately managed across ten different teams, making off-field movements harder to monitor as compared to international matches where the BCCI has full oversight.
The new rules, once passed at the next BCCI meeting, will apply to both the IPL and the Indian national team.
