Are WAGs really a distraction?

"I would have objected to her (Anushka Sharma's) presence, but was helpless when I realised that permission was granted by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Sanjay Patel. I doubt whether the secretary even spoke to the interim BCCI president Shivlal Yadav before granting permission. I am sure he (Yadav) would have turned down the request. Anushka stayed with Virat till the third Test. Foreign players do take their girlfriends on tours, but India's culture is different. Indian society doesn't allow girlfriends on tour like this."

This is what Sunil Dev, the manager for India's Test leg of the England tour, reportedly said after India's poor show. This has given rise to many debates, with many terming this as 'sports sexism'. Kavitha Krishnan, secretary of AIPWA, is one of them.

Krishnan took to her micro-blogging page posting, "Team India manager says girlfriends on tour 'not our culture'. Wives, GFs blamed for defeat, fatwa on their travel to matches. Sports sexism!" (sic)

Earlier, talking about India's 3-1 loss to England, a top BCCI official had reportedly stated, "Even if players wanted to focus on cricket, their wives were a big distraction. When some wanted to go to the gym or do nets, they couldn't do so because their wives wanted to explore the city."

Former Indian cricketer Bishen Singh Bedi, says he feels 'disgusted' at this 'primitve thought'. "We are all set to make ourselves look like a bunch of idiots. The foreign media and players must be having a field day laughing over such statements. How can wives be blamed for poor show by players? This is such disgusting primitive thought; most unwanted and irresponsible statement I have heard. Come on, for heaven's sake, we are in the 21st century and here we are blaming the wives and girlfriends? Sad!" he says.

Bedi further says that the least someone could have done is to act a little more responsibly. "It just looks like a way to hide the poor planning and preparation. If a player did defy team discipline, he can be hauled up. But the way things are being put, it seems it's wrong for a player to have a wife or a girlfriend! My wife has accompanied me on tours when I played, and she was never a distraction. Sportspeople keep travelling and have very little time to spend with family. But if wives and girlfriends are banned or hauled up for players' not performing on the field, it's really very stupid and like I said, primitive." Former India captain Kapil Dev says players should not be expected to live for months without meeting their partners.

"Wives and girlfriends cannot be blamed for a loss. I don't know today's cricket culture, so it won't be correct for me to comment on somebody else's opinion. But I can speak about our times. I think wives or girlfriends should accompany players on tours, but not in the first half. I always believed that. For example, if a tour is for three months, the wives and girlfriends shouldn't be there for the first month, because that's the time when the team should stay together, eat together, spend time together, so that they get to know each other and bond better. When we used to go to England, Australia, and West Indies, to play for 2-3 months, we used to decide this ourselves. In the second half, they must come, because you can't expect that we don't meet our wives or they don't meet us for three months. We used to travel for 10 months in a year and not getting to meet your wives... that's unfair. And now, you have lost a series, that does not mean you blame the wives and girlfriends! But it's for the Board to decide," he shares.

Shuttler Chetan Anand, who often travels with his wife on tours, scoffs at this suggestion, saying, "This is the most unreasonable excuse I have ever heard. Instead of talking about what actually went wrong, in perhaps planning and strategy, officials are busy blaming the wives and girlfriends! I travel with my wife, and I can say she isn't a distraction. We are professional sportspeople and I am sure cricketers know their responsibilities. If they have lost a series, it means the team and performance has to be evaluated and not the wives or girlfriends presence on the tour."

On a concluding note, Bishen Singh Bedi asserts that the need of the hour, is to "not shatter the players' confidence. It's a game. You win some, you lose some. Own it up and stay quiet. And don't act like idiots in pointing fingers at wives and girlfriends. They are not the distractions."

Twitterati takes:

Rounaq Nayak @rounaq_26: If bringing a girlfriend along for a match causes Team India to lose matches, they should start playing matches in traditional Indian attire

Pankaj Mishra @pankajmishra23: Another 'culture' lecture! 'Team India Manager: 'Our Culture Doesn't Allow Girlfriends on Tour'

Srijith @srijith: "Indian society doesn't allow girlfriend on tour like this." Can someone pass me the "Indian society" rule book?

Rajesh Ahuja @ManShunNot: We're a special breed of nincompoops. Our culture does not allow girlfriends on tour: Indian Cricket Team Manager

Sourav Pradhan @drsouravpradhan: Team India banned to take wives and girlfriends along... Aur kitna neeche giraoge in logon ko...

Rahul Bose @RahulBose1: Only more mystifying than India's form is the BCCI's decision to ban wives/girlfriends. Helps team play swing, catch, bowl better?

Nandagopal J Nair @Njnair: Really, this is the answer to Team India's woes? @BCCI diagnosis of defeat: restrict company of wives & girlfriends

KnottyGal @VNezz2: Most ppl wouldn't have noticed that @DineshKarthik was with @DipikaPallikal during the CWG when she won the Gold.