MUMBAI: It’s clear Indian captain Rohit Sharma has some serious reservations about certain clauses in the 10-point disciplinary guidelines prepared by the BCCI, which have come out in the media after a review meeting of India’s dismal tour of Australia, and is set to discuss the issue with the Board secretary Devajit Saikia.
Interestingly, while the guidelines, which include a 14-day limited window for the players’ wives to be on a tour that is of a 45-day duration or longer, have clearly been made at the behest of head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar, Rohit too was present in the review meeting for a long time.
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The BCCI has not officially announced the guidelines, but the 10-point diktat has already been published by the media.
As Rohit sat beside chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar before the start of the press conference to announce the Indian team for the ODI series against England and the Champions Trophy at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday, he was heard telling his former Mumbai teammate: “Ab mere ko baithna padega secretary ke saath. Family, wamily ka discuss karne ke liye, sab mere ko bol rahe hai yaar (I will have to discuss with the BCCI secretary about this (families on tour) issue. Everyone is asking me (to do so).”
Rohit’s comment wasn’t on record, but it was caught on the microphone.
When Rohit was asked about the BCCI’s guidelines, he snapped back, “Who told you about these rules? Has it come from the official handle of the BCCI? Let it come officially.”
However, Agarkar confirmed that the BCCI had indeed drafted an SOP for the Dos and Don’ts on tour for Team India.
Asked what exactly changed in six months with the same set of players who won the T20 World Cup that BCCI needed stringent SOPs, the ex-India pacer explained, “We’ll probably talk about it endlessly if we keep going on. I suppose every team has some rules in place. We’ve spoken about various things you see over the last few months where you can improve as a team, where you can get a bit closer as a team. It’s not a school. It’s not a punishment.
“It’s just you have some rules in place and when you’re playing for the national team you just follow those rules. Again, these are mature individuals. They are superstars in their own rights in international sport.”
Agarkar said that many of these protocols for Team India were already in place, it’s just that they were spelled out now.
“But at the end of the day you’re eventually representing your country. There are certain things that you just inherently follow as every team does. I think a lot of them have been in place. Maybe, we’ve spoken about it now and it’s been put out, but a lot of them have been in place in any case. You keep on refining it as you go along eventually what suits the team, you want to try and do,” he asserted.
‘Gambhir trusts captain on the field’
Rohit insisted that the India head coach had full trust on his leadership skills on the field and they were on the same page.
“Both of us are very clear in what we want to do. I’m not going to sit here and discuss what goes behind every game tactically but it’s very clear in my mind. Gambhir is somebody once we enter the field, he trusts what the captain is doing on the field. The basic talks that happen are only off the field, in the ground or maybe the changing room. “But once we take the field it’s all about what I do on the field. That’s the kind of trust we have in each other and that’s how it should be. That’s about it,” the Indian captain stressed.