The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has framed a new rule with regard to wives and girlfriends (WAGs) accompanying Indian cricketers on tours abroad.

The Indian cricket board has provided a 14-day window for the WAGs to stay with their star husbands and boyfriends, after the start of the tour.

It will come into effect in the ongoing England tour, where the Virat Kohli-led side will play a five-Test series starting on Wednesday (1 August). India have been in England since 30 June and have played three T20Is and three ODIs already. The tour ends on 11 September. The decision was taken keeping in mind the expectation of a high-intensity Test series and also the flak that the players and their partners had received in the event of the team's poor performances in the earlier tours. 

Captain Kohli has been busy on social media, sharing images of him with his actress wife Anushka Sharma. The couple has been spending time in the United Kingdom, without the troubles of being mobbed on the streets by the crowd, which he encounters back home.

Most of the WAGs had left England before the team's practice match against Essex, but a few had stayed back, according to reports. However, according to the new BCCI rule, they can rejoin the cricketers only after two weeks from the start of the first Test.

According to this, the WAGs can return to England before the third Test in Nottingham on 18 August.

“In the event of the 45-day tour, the BCCI did not want a fixed slot for the WAGs. It may or may not suit all of them. So, we’ve decided that the ladies can join their men for any 14 days during the tour after the first two weeks,” a source was quoted as saying by the Mumbai Mirror. 

On India’s previous Test tour to England in 2014, Kohli had a poor series with the bat. And some of the BCCI officials felt that having his then girlfriend along with him affected Kohli's performance.