Virat Kohli – The not so bright future of Indian cricket?

Sport, according to me is life in a nutshell. Before any other road is taken or any other inference is drawn, I would just like to re-iterate that sport is a small trailer of all the events and happenings that constitute the journey called life.

The best part about sport is the involvement of all emotions that we can think of as human beings. The most predominant emotions which are tangibly evident on the field are the ones pertaining to passion and aggression. The former is definitely the instigator for a youngster to pick the sport as a livelihood whereas the latter if used judiciously with the former, can make the career choice worth a million wonders.

However, if the sociable element of the two emotions goes haywire, it leads to disaster for the individual who is a direct party to the same. My article is not meant to look down upon the traits Virat Kohli has shown over the years, but I won’t deny from it being a deep critical analysis of his utterly high adrenaline, and sometimes obnoxious on-field behaviour.

I understand his behaviour as a passionate youngster, but as an ardent follower of the game and as a person who endorses round trimming your instincts into a composed shell of tranquillity to make yourself a complete personality, I see Virat Kohli more as an annoyance rather than the potentially breathtaking entity in the making.

As a kid, there have been times when I used to hate getting up in the morning to go to school but at the same time (with winters as the icing on the cake), I didn’t even blink an eyelid before getting up at the same wee hours of the morning to watch Test match action unfold from down under.

So, when I saw Mr. Kohli abuse profusely after completing a very well compiled hundred at the Adelaide Oval last year, I was astonished to say the least and the century that could have been a saving grace before Australia inserted the final nail in the coffin, along with the abusive language made the death of the tour even more disgraceful and painful.

It’s not funny when I think of the number of people I have heard talking and promoting Kohli’s case as the next in line leader after Mahendra Singh Dhoni. If that actually turns out to be the case, there has to be a lot of modification made to his high decibel personality in order for us as a nation to tell the world that we don’t promote people who are indisciplined while leading our prestigious team missions.

Passion as an explanation to all acts pertaining to loudness can only hop onto you till a point. Beyond that, it becomes pertinent to measure the highly aggressive behaviour on a scale of tolerability. So, when you see a man fighting with his state and national team mate (reference to Kohli’s fight with Gautam Gambhir in this year’s IPL where both were equally at fault) and his abusive behaviour with Imrul Kayes of Bangladesh in the 2011 World Cup, you can’t help but wonder whether this is how we want ourselves to be projected at the international level.

Whatever may be your credentials as a player (in this case, Kohli still needs to prove his Test match worth in all completeness), you have no right to go beyond the permitted levels of conduct that are specified for the game and it is even more important to maintain civil behaviour while dealing with other players.

The other day in Mumbai when Kohli was booed by the crowd during the presentation ceremony due to the controversial run-out that took place earlier, he had some explanations and some returns to the give back to the crowd – “They forget that the players they are booing for also play for their country”.

Other similar instants of crowd altercations have also not helped to enhance Kohli’s public image (for eg. the middle finger episode with the Indian supporters in Australia or the fight with a few spectators after an IPL match a few years ago).

There is an old adage – “What goes around, comes around”, which couldn’t have been more pertinent in his case. Virat Kohli needs to realise that people will only love and respect you when your conduct on-field is as good as your performance. In fact, the former facet is much more relevant as it’s the real instigator for marathon success.

In fact, he doesn’t need to go any further and look at how Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have got crowd support along with respect and adulation wherever they have gone, virtually converting their team’s away games into home games.

It’s the years of hard-work coupled with humility that has made these cult figures become what they have. Let us hope for India’s sake that this is just a passing phase and there are some positive changes in Virat’s dynamic (in more ways than one) personality.

Disclaimer: The opinion in this article is of the author and not necessarily of Sportskeeda.

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