In its bid to prevent fresh controversies, the Cricket Board has given
strict instructions to the members of the Indian team, currently on a 80-day tour
of the United Kingdom, not to leak happenings in the dressing room and team meetings.
A letter, written by BCCI's Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty,
has directed the team members to keep under wraps "the talks in dressing
room and team meetings".
Quite obviously, the BCCI wants to avoid the sort of explosive
situation that had erupted when Greg Chappell was the coach and Sourav
Ganguly, the captain, and the duo got involved in one of cricket's most
talked about public spats during the tour of Zimbabwe in 2005.
They have also been told not to give interviews to the media without the prior
permission of the team management, a continuation of the practice that has been
followed for the last few tours.
Yesterday skipper Rahul Dravid had made it clear at the pre-departure
media conference that the players would not give exclusive interviews to the
media during the tour.
"On match days the performer on that day will be asked to meet the media
through a common media conference," he said.
This too has been included in the letter given by the Board which states that
on practice days the team management will decide which player will talk to the
media.
"On match days the performer of the day should be available
for the media briefing," says the letter, which, to an extent, conforms
to the edicts followed by the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's
Tennis Association who even levy fines for the non-appearance of players at
mandatory media conferences.
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