Kapil for ‘balanced’ approach on family visits during tour

Kapil for ‘balanced’ approach on family visits during tour

New Delhi: World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev on Tuesday backed the idea of families travelling with cricketers on tours but called for a ‘balanced approach’ in dealing with the issue that has divided opinion.

Kapil’s comments come days after Virat Kohli expressed his disappointment over BCCI’s diktat on curtailing family visits on tours lasting more than 45 days, allowing a maximum of 14 days of family time. For shorter tours, players could bring their families for a maximum of one week.

BCCI’s directives came in the wake of India’s whitewash at home at the hands of New Zealand and a 1-3 humbling in Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. At the recently-concluded Champions Trophy, the players’ families who travelled to Dubai did not stay in the team hotel and their expenses were borne by the players, not BCCI.

‘Well, I don’t know, that’s individual. I think it’s the cricket board’s call,’ said the 1983 World Cup-winning captain, speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the third edition of Kapil Dev Grant Thornton Invitational tournament.

‘My view is, yes, you need family. But you also need a team, all the time. You need to have a balanced approach,’ he said.

‘In our time, we used to say to ourselves — not by the cricket board — that the first half of the tour should be cricket, and in the second half, the family should come and enjoy it too. It should be a blend,’ Kapil, who is also the president of Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), added.

Earlier, Kohli, speaking at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit recently, admitted to being disappointed at the rule being implemented and families being blamed for players’ poor performances.

‘It’s very difficult to explain to people how grounding it is to just come back to your family every time you have something which is intense, which happens on the outside,’ he said. ‘I don’t think people have an understanding of what value it brings to a large extent. And I feel quite disappointed about that because it’s like people who have no control over what’s going on are kind of brought into conversations and put out at the forefront that, ‘oh, maybe they need to be kept away’.’

‘Golf with a dash of T20’

The third edition of Kapil Dev Grant Thornton Invitational promises to have a ‘dash of T20 cricket,’ Kapil said. The tournament will tee off at Bengaluru’s Prestige Golfshire from April 23-26 and will feature a field of 72 professionals and amateurs.

The event will be played in a mixed format, meaning both men and women golfers will be in action. Out of the 72 entries, 60 will be male players while there will be 12 women -- eight of them professionals -- in action. Among men, 40 of the 60 players will be professionals.

‘Our tournament director is going to ensure that the course plays fair to men and women. The girls will play about 6000-6200 yards. The men will play over 7000 yards,’ Amandeep Johl, PGTI CEO said.

The tournament will begin with a practice round on April 23, followed by a three-day, 54-hole championship in which 60 men and 12 women professionals will compete for the total prize purse of ₹2 crore.

The event will also feature three Pro-Am rounds in a rotational format, with 48 professionals teeing off in the morning, while the remaining 24 will pair up with amateurs in the afternoon session.

‘It’s a very interesting format. We wanted to add a bit of T20-style thrill to generate interest.’ Kapil said.