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The BCCI’s SOP change after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy loss in Australia is more of a procedural formality than a substantial shift in how things operate. Players are still travelling with their large personal entourages, including cooks, nannies, and other staff, but now their accommodations are booked separately rather than through the board, sources told CricBlogger.
Financially, this doesn’t make a huge difference, as players were already paying for their entourage’s expenses—the only change is that the BCCI is no longer handling those bookings directly.
This adjustment likely serves to create a clearer distinction between official team arrangements and personal travel needs, but in practice, it doesn’t seem to alter much about how the players manage their support system.
“It appears that the attempt to bring in the SOP was more of a hogwash to divert the attention after the BGT loss,” a source told CricBlogger.
Source also said that some of the top players also had their personal chefs in the recently concluded England series. Some are them were booked in Airbnb next to the team hotels so that they could serve warm food to the players. They are often seen instructing the hotel chef to prepare food in certain ways as per the need of the players.
Source also said that the Indian team didn’t have such culture before. It was Virat Kohli who initiated it and is now being followed by the top Indian cricketers. Kohli also initiated the Yo-Yo test that was discontinued under Rohit Sharma’s tenure.
It is also learnt that the BCCI had faced a similar logistic nightmare during the 2018 Australian tour as well. The board had to hire two buses at times to accommodate the entourages. But it didn’t snowball into a controversy because India had won in Australia for the first time in the history of Indian cricket.
