How to organise a club cricket tour of India

Published July 2026 · Maidan Cricket Tours

Organising an overseas cricket tour is a genuinely big job — which is exactly why most clubs talk about India for years without going. This is the sequence that works, drawn from tours Maidan has modelled and run for Australian club sides. Follow it and the project stays manageable; skip steps and it tends to unravel at the AGM.

1. Start 12–18 months out

Serious club tours are decided at one season's AGM for travel after the following season. That lead time isn't bureaucracy — it's what makes group flight bookings affordable, gives players time to save, and lets fixtures be arranged against genuinely suitable opposition rather than whoever is available at short notice.

2. Appoint one tour organiser — and give them a mandate

Tours run by committee stall. The clubs that get to India appoint a single tour coordinator with authority to gather numbers, collect deposits and deal with the operator. Everything else in this guide is that person's checklist.

3. Gauge real interest with a refundable deposit

A show of hands at training is not a squad. Ask for a small refundable deposit — even A$100–250 — and you'll find out immediately who is actually coming. Fifteen to twenty players plus a handful of partners and supporters is the sweet spot: big enough for group rates, small enough for one coach.

4. Decide the shape of the tour before asking for quotes

• Duration: 10 nights is the club standard — long enough for 4–5 fixtures plus real sightseeing, short enough for annual leave.
• Standard of cricket: be honest about your level. The best tours are competitive but winnable; a mismatch in either direction flattens the trip.
• Region: a two-or-three-city itinerary (for example Mumbai plus Rajasthan) beats trying to see all of India in ten days.
• Budget band: agree it as a club before quotes arrive. A realistic 2026 band is A$3,400–3,800 per person land-only for a value tour — see our full cost breakdown.

5. Choose how the tour is run

Three options, honestly compared:

• DIY: cheapest on paper, but someone at the club is now personally responsible for ground bookings, opposition, coaches and 20 people's hotel nights in a country they may not know. Rarely survives contact with reality.
• Generic travel agent: can book hotels and flights, but cannot arrange fixtures, grounds, umpires or opposition — the actual point of the tour.
• Specialist cricket tour operator: handles fixtures and logistics as one job. What matters most is whether the operator has a real, current network in India — ask specifically who arranges their fixtures and how long they've worked with those clubs.

6. Lock dates around the Indian season

October to March is India's cricket season and its best touring weather, but it clashes with the Australian season. Most Australian clubs therefore tour in September–early October or late March–April — playable windows at either end of the Indian season. Our best time to tour guide covers this in detail.

7. Sort the paperwork early

Every traveller needs a passport with six months' validity, an Indian e-Tourist Visa (about A$40 and straightforward online), and travel insurance — most clubs make insurance a condition of touring. Details in our visas, insurance and health FAQ.

8. Collect money in stages

The standard pattern: booking deposit on commitment, a mid payment about four months out, and the balance six to eight weeks before departure. Staged payments protect the club's cashflow and stop one person carrying the float.

9. Build the non-cricket half deliberately

The matches are the spine, but the tour lives in everything around them — the Taj Mahal or Rajasthan's forts, markets, food, and a rest day that is genuinely a rest day. Partners and supporters travelling with the group need their own itinerary on match days; good operators build one in.

10. Confirm the duty-of-care basics

Before signing anything, ask any operator: What financial protection sits behind my deposit? Who is on the ground with us? What is the emergency process? What happens if a fixture falls through? Clear answers to those four questions tell you more than any brochure.