Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, still only 15, will have to change away from his senior India team-mates during this month’s T20I legs in Ireland and England. The arrangement follows the ECB’s safeguarding policy for anyone under 16, rather than any cricketing quirk or personal request.
Under the guidelines, the young all-rounder may take part in tactical talks inside the main dressing-room but must either switch into his kit in a separate room or use the team room at an agreed time when no one else is present. India have already been allocated three rooms in Stormont’s pavilion for the two matches against Ireland, and similar plans are in place for the five T20Is in England.
“This is an ICC event, with their safeguarding procedures active as they have jurisdiction,” an ECB spokesperson said. “A safeguarding concern occurring during the event may be managed by the ICC. In addition to this, the ECB Safe Hands policy applies at all times.”
The same spokesperson added: “The Cricket Regulator is in contact with the Team Liaison Officer (TLO) for the Indian team to discuss requirements and expectations for the player while he is in the UK. Each County Safeguarding Officer for the relevant cricket venue is also working closely with the Team Liaison Officer to ensure venue protocols and arrangements are understood and adhered to. This is conducted via safeguarding risk assessments.”
“It is our understanding that the player’s parents will be travelling with him at all times. They are staying in the same hotel, which is outside of usual protocol, but agreed on this occasion due to his age. This additional measure provides us with further confidence that he has family members that can provide the additional level of support and care.”
The ECB’s stance is not unique. In Premier League football, Arsenal teenagers Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman faced an identical rule, changing separately until they turned 16. Cricket simply hasn’t needed to apply the regulation too often because so few boys break through this young.
Sooryavanshi might now do so. Should he play in Belfast on 26 or 28 June, or in the England series that follows, he will become India’s youngest men’s debutant, nudging aside Sachin Tendulkar’s mark of 16 years and 205 days – a record that has stood since 1989. Little wonder the BCCI has sanctioned the trip for both his parents, with secretary Devajit Saikia confirming earlier this month that the board would pick up the tab.
For Sooryavanshi himself, separate cubicles are hardly new. He has already shared senior dressing-rooms with Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, his state side in India’s domestic circuit and, most recently, India A in Sri Lanka. Those environments fell outside ECB jurisdiction, so this is the first time he has been compelled to dress apart. One India support-staff member, speaking quietly at nets, summed it up: “He’ll shrug and get on with it. At 15 all you want to do is play.”
From a cricketing perspective, the bigger question is whether the selectors actually field him. India have a crowded pool of top-order hitters and may prefer to ease a teenager in. Coach VVS Laxman sounded cautious earlier in the week, remarking that “talent needs space but also good timing”. Yet the schedule – two games in Belfast followed by matches at Chester-le-Street (1 July), Manchester (4 July), Nottingham (6 July), The Oval (9 July) and Lord’s (11 July) – offers room for rotation.
The ECB, meanwhile, insists the safeguarding framework is routine rather than restrictive. A county administrator involved in planning put it like this: “If a player is under 16, the rules kick in – doesn’t matter whether he’s from Bangalore or Birmingham. Most of the time we’re dealing with county academies, not international sides, so this feels unusual but the policy hasn’t changed.”
Fans turning up this summer probably won’t notice any of it. Sooryavanshi will walk out with his team like everyone else, only darting off to a different corner of the pavilion when the pads come off. If the teenager does make that long-awaited debut, the separate room becomes a footnote. What matters is whether he can handle Mark Wood’s pace or find the short straight boundaries in Manchester. The rest – as one senior India player joked after practice – “is just lockers and laundry”.
