Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on Friday asserted that the BCCI’s 10-point policy for its centrally-contracted players has actually been in place since his playing days and wanted to know when was it “altered” and by whom. Terming the guidelines “fresh documentation”, Harbhajan said the move diverts attention from the team’s forgettable on-field performance against New Zealand and Australia recently. Days after the 1-3 defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the BCCI has come up with a 10-point diktat to promote “discipline and unity”, making domestic cricket mandatory, imposing restriction on the presence of families and personal staff on tours and banning individual commercial endorsements during series.
To Harbhajan, all these measures seemed like old wine in a new bottle.
“Let me first put this on record. When I was reading the travel policy document reported by the media, I hardly found anything new from the last time I represented India as a centrally-contracted cricketer,” Harbhajan told PTI during an interaction.
“At least nine out of 10 points, including duration of family visits, staying in same hotel, practice timings, all are same. My question is if these rules were in place during my time, who all have altered it and when? That should be probed,” Harbhajan, who has 700 plus international wickets across formats, said.
The same assertion was also made by one of Harbhajan’s former India teammate Irfan Pathan.
For Harbhajan, what is certainly not funny is the timing of issuing these guidelines as he feels the discussion should have been strictly on cricket only.
“Hum log mudde se bhatak rahein hain (We are deviating from the main issue). We didn’t lose 1-3 because wives and partners were there for two months. We didn’t lose because someone travelled separately.
“We lost because we have played very poor cricket at times. We didn’t bat well even at home. We have players who are horribly out of form. What are the course corrections being made? Or is it just these off-the-field things being discussed?” he questioned.
One of India’s finest spinners, Harbhajan then recollected his playing days.
“I think some of the points needed to be revisited because they were being flouted. Like in our times, I never saw a Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid or Anil Kumble leave for Mumbai, Kolkata or Bengaluru just because the match has ended in three days and next game is a week away.
“They all stayed and travelled to next destination. Only change I see (in the new rulebook) is 150 kg suitcase allowance. Back in the day, we used to have lesser.
“Why would you need to tell players that you have to travel by team bus? That’s a given. If someone was breaking the rule, that person needs to be probed.” While he completely supported barring the personal entourage of any particular player or a coach, Harbhajan felt that the BCCI can have a couple of quality chefs travelling with the team.
“BCCI has deep pockets. Why do you need to carry personal chefs. In soccer World Cup, big teams carry their own chef, who takes care of dietary requirements of players. Have a couple of team chefs. It is not a big deal,” he added.
Gambhir’s role is on field not administrative
According to Harbhajan, the only thing new in the policy document is players requiring prior approval of head coach Gautam Gambhir on certain matters, and the former spinner didn’t agree with that.
“In our times, it used to be written that prior approval of BCCI was needed on certain matters. So, for approvals, drop a mail to BCCI and ask for permission. Why does the head coach need to get into all this? That is not his job.
“His job is on the field and in the technical aspects where we are lacking. Administrative part should be left with competent people in the BCCI,” he said.
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