I don’t want to go to room, sit alone and sulk: Virat Kohli bats for family on tours

Virat Kohli advocates for players' families on tours for support during intense days on the field.

Star batter Virat Kohli supported the presence of players' families on tours, saying he would always prefer having personal support around him to deal with tough and intense days on the field, instead of sulking alone in his hotel room.

A BCCI directive which was issued after India's 1-3 Test series defeat against Australia had curtailed the family time of players for no longer than 14 days on tours exceeding 45 days.

The wife, children or girlfriends of players could be with them for a maximum of one week on shorter tours.

Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami had their families in Dubai during the recently-concluded Champions Trophy but they did not stay at the team hotel. The expense of the families' stay was borne by the players and not the BCCI.

"The role of family is 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," said Kohli during RCB’s Innovation Lab summit which concluded here on Saturday.

"I don't think people have an understanding of what value it brings." Kohli said having the family around would help a player to recover from on-field disappointments that much quicker.

"I don't want to go to my room and just sit alone and sulk. I want to be able to be normal. Then you can really treat your game as something that is a responsibility.