Mumbai: In a bizarre move, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators has allowed the India captain and coach to decide on travel schedule of the wives and girlfriends – euphemistically, called WAGs.
Over the years it was the BCCI which had taken a call on wives and partners on tour; in all fairness, it had a uniform policy which gave all players a window to spend time with their partners.
During the recently concluded World Cup, for instance, players’ families were given a fifteen-day window after the first 20 days of departure from India.
But authorising the player and the coach to take the final call does not augur well for team spirit as a decision to accommodate a specific player may cause heartburn among the rest.
Conversely, if such a request is spurned it will add to the baggage that the captain and the coach are saddled with.
Incidentally, most of the team are married and wives of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni are permanent fixtures during overseas jaunts – albeit during the pre-determined window.
The COA decision has taken not just the BCCI officials, but also former Chief Justice R.M. Lodha by surprise.
A senior BCCI official said that the move to allow the captain and coach to decide on the travel duration and plan of wives and girlfriends was a clear case of conflict of interest. The essence of conflict of interest is that you are taking a decision of which you are yourself a beneficiary.
Lodha panel's set of proposals was the yardstick for the formation of the new BCCI constitution, but the former CJI is surprised at how things have panned out in the last two years.
He told IANS that now that an Ethics Officer is there, and he should take a stand and stop any move that is against the newly registered constitution as per the proposals of the Lodha panel."What can I say? The Ethics Officer is there now to decide.
What do I say? Everyone is interpreting it (the Lodha panel's proposals) in their own way. Our recommendations are in place and based on that I was told the constitution was framed.
As and when issue arises, the Ethics Officer would take a call," he said.Lodha is clearly disappointed at how the CoA has failed to follow the brief and implement the new constitution and goes on to add that there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
