Kolkata: India’s swashbuckling cricketer Virat Kohli, in spite of his sterling performances in the earlier matches in the World Cup 2015 series, had suddenly turned into a villain in the eyes of cricket fans when India lost the semifinal.
The print and electronic media and the social media were quite harsh in their response, even to the extent of dragging his beau and Bollywood star Anushka Sharma into the ugly attack.
When Kohli and Sharma received brickbats – left, right and centre – skipper Dhoni, former skipper Saurav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Ravi Shastri and others had come in with strong defence of Kohli.
Kohli had maintained a studied silence all these days. But at a media meet here on Friday on Apr 10, ahead of the first IPL match for Royal Challengers Bengaluru under his leadership against the home team Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday, Kohli spoke his mind on the subject in response to a question from a mediaperson.
He said he was very hurt with the comments on his sole poor performance in the crucial semifinal against Australia. He added that he was personally very disappointed. He pointed out that he had been consistent for the last five years and to see such reactions because of sole match it was really disappointing.
The presence of Anushka in the stands when the semifinal was being played in Sydney had angered the critics further. She was ruthlessly taunted in the social media.
Kohli made his feelings clear. “At a human level, for they said they should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.
If others did well in a match after many failures, it was being described as return to form. In his case, a single failure was being branded a total disaster, said he.
He also said that he had won the maximum number of matches for the team, which no one else had done. One could not miss the pain and anguish within him when he further said that he had lost faith in a lot of people who he had trusted. To some extent, he said, something good had happened, so that he could make out who to trust in future.
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The problem with Virat Kohli is that he is a hot headed fellow.
Before India won the World Cup in July 1983, cricketers did not make money worth the name. However, today the scenario has completely chjanged. Today’s hectic cricket, money, fame, sponsorships, etc. have propelled the fortunes of cricketers many of whom, today, come from humble backgrounds and overnight they are millionaires and they totally lose their moorings with their countrymen and have exaggerated importance of themselves and consider that they are some special breeds. I am aware that Virat Kohli’s father was a criminal lawyer, but I wonder they had this much money that he is raking in today.
With this money at their disposal, they behave as if they are some rich nationals from those countries that by virtue of being leading economies enjoy very high per capita incomes. The fact of the matter is that majority of Indians are poor and live in abject poverty and cricketers playing for India should thank their lot for the nation’s madness and rave for vrticket that has made them wealthy. In fact, besides playing cricket, they should do some charity work.
However, irrespective of their origins and background, they have fascinations for fancy, top-of-the-range cars, motor-bikes, fire arms and all trappings of wealth. They want girl-friends who are film stars, models, fashion designers (and what not). They just do not understand that the more high profile, liberated and famous one’s girl friend is, then the chances of divorce after marrige are very high.
I do not understand why should Virat Kohli make a fuss about the comments made by the media on his performace during the semi-final match against Australia and they blamed it due to the presence of his girl friend in Australia during the world cup? He had problems in Australia over an incidence there and now this. The media has learnt about his weakness and they will take full advantage of it and badger him on some pretext or the other all throughout his career. Moreover, as he is the captain of the test team, he should learn to be cool and level-headed like Mahendra Singh Dhobi, otherwise not only his captaincy will be taken away from him and he may not find a place in the team. Then, the only option for him would be a career in acting – should be get an opportunity.