India captain Virat Kohli has requested the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to allow wives of cricketers to travel with them for the entire duration of overseas tours.
Kohli's request comes at a time when the apex body of Indian cricket had restricted the time limit for wives and girlfriends to stay with their partners to only two weeks on overseas tours.
However, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, who oversees the operations of the BCCI, is in no hurry to change the cricket body's stance over the issue.
CoA sources confirmed Kohli's request to the ANI: "Yes. Virat had requested but we're not going to take any decision soon. We have said that we will leave it to the new office bearers. The policy will not change now."
The CoA, according to The Indian Express, is not ready to take a call as it wants to wait for the new BCCI body.
Kohli had brought up the issue with a senior BCCI official, who in turn passed the request to the CoA. Notably, the captain's wife and Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma had travelled with the team during India's recently-concluded tour of England.
The CoA had also asked Team India manager Sunil Subramaniam to make a formal request over the change of rule.
MS Dhoni's wife Sakshi, Rohit Sharma's wife Ritika Sajdeh, R Ashwin's wife Prithi, and Shikhar Dhawan's wife Ayesha often travel with their partners and they were seen during the tour to the Old Blighty.
WAGs on tours long-debated topic!
The call over allowing partners on cricket tours has been a subject of debate over the years.
Former Australian cricketer Ian Healy had even commented that wives and girlfriends were a "distraction" on tour after the team's poor performance during 2015 Ashes.
However, World Cup-winning Australia captain, Ricky Ponting had spoken on the issue after the 2007 Ashes. He said relating performances to the presence of wives and girlfriends on tours as "a load of rubbish".
Ponting conceded that devotion to the sport is paramount but pointed out that missing family over a period of three months is difficult for cricketers.
"There are certain times, yes, you do have to devote yourself to the team and it's important to steer clear of all distractions. But at the same time, to be all the way over here and not see your wife or family for two or three months would be very difficult," Ponting had told The Telegraph.
