Champions Trophy 2025: BCCI rejects 'senior player' request to travel with family to Dubai

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reportedly rejected Team India's senior player request to travel with family to Dubai for Champions Trophy 2025. 

The Champions Trophy 2025 is slated to take place next week i.e. February 19 and India squad will leave for Dubai from Mumbai on February 15, Saturday. Pakistan is the official host of the tournament, but India will play all their matches in Dubai after the BCCI refused to send the team to Pakistan due to security concerns. 

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A few days before India’s departure for Dubai, a senior player reportedly approached BCCI with a request to travel with his family but the board turned down his request, citing policy in place. After India’s disastrous Test of Australia, where they failed to defend their Border-Gavaskar Trophy title for the first time in 10 years, the BCCI decided to enforce stricter policies, including limiting family travel. Last month, the board released a 10-point policy, where it was mentioned that players’ families can stay with them for two weeks if the series or tournament stretches to 45 days or more. 

Since the Champions Trophy is only for 19 days, starting from February 19 to March 9 and if India squad is reaching Dubai on 15 February, which will stretch stay to 24 days (counting their possibility of making it to the final), thus their families will not be allowed to accommodate them as per the new new policy by the BCCI. 

BCCI sources say exceptions can be made 

As per the report by Press Trust of India (PTI), the BCCI is adamant on its stance on players’ tagging their families for the series or tournament. However, the certain exceptions can be made if players are willing to spend from their own pocket for their families’ stay. 

“If anything changes then it is different, but as of now, the players are unlikely to be accompanied by their wives or partners for this tour. One of the senior players had enquired about it and he was told that the policy decision will be followed," a source close to BCCI told PTI. 

“Since the tour is of less than one month, families won't be accompanying the players. But if exceptions are made, I think that individual will have to bear the full expenses as the BCCI won't be covering any cost." source added.

The BCCI source did not reveal the senior player’s name who approached the BCCI with a request to tag his family to Dubai for the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025. However, in the past several players’ wives travelled with them for the tours, including the likes of Anushka Sharma, Ritika Sajdeh, and Athiya Shetty have travelled with their husbands Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul, respectively in recent years. 

Who could be the senior player? 

In India’s squad for the Champions Trophy 2025, batting stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are the senior most players in the squad. Kohli and Rohit’s wives and children often travel with them for overseas tours. Virat Kohli’s wife Anushka and their kids travelled with him for the Test series against Australia. Rohit Sharma’s wife Ritika and daughter  Samaira were with him throughout the T20 World Cup last year. But, Ritika did not travel with her husband to Australia at that time as she just gave birth to a baby boy. 

Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami are other senior players in the squad. Last year, Hardik separated from his wife Natasa Stankovic. Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba Jadeja has hardly been seen with her husband during the tours since she is an MLA of Gujarat Legislative Assembly. Though Shami separated from his wife Jahan in 2018 but she was hardly seen travelling with the Indian pacer. 

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