“It’s not a holiday” - Gautam Gambhir opens up on BCCI’s new family rule on away tours

Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir has once again opened up on the new family rule laid out by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the overseas tours, stating that the purpose of everyone in the team is to make the nation proud.

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It’s important to note that the BCCI issued a few sets of guidelines for the players after losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia by 1-3. The revised family rule states that families can accompany players for only 14 days during tournaments lasting 45 days or longer. However, for shorter tours, families are restricted to a maximum of seven days. 

On Day 1 of the Lord’s Test, Gambhir spoke to Cheteshwar Pujara in an interview with Sony Sports Network, asserting that players should be aware that they are not on a holiday, but to represent the nation. 

"Families are important, but you've got to understand one thing. You are here for a purpose. It's not a holiday. You're here for a huge purpose. You've got very few people in that dressing room or in this tour that gets this opportunity to make the country proud. So yes, I'm not against not having families with us,” Gambhir told Sony Sports Network.

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"It is important to have families, but if your focus is towards making our country proud and you have a much bigger role than any other thing, and you're committed to that goal, you're committed to that cause, I think everything else is fine. But for me, I think that cause and that goal is more important than any other thing," he added.

Earlier in March 2025, Virat Kohli, the Indian talismanic batter, batted for families to be a part of the overseas tours, emphasizing the balance they could bring to players, who might have a tough time on the field.

"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," Kohli said in March 2025.

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"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,’” he added.

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