Kohli’s extraordinary gesture an act to be hailed

Something extraordinary happened on Sunday at the Oval in England. No, I am not referring to the emphatic demolition of Australia that would justify India’s claim to being strong favourites to win the World Cup. Winning is as much part of the game as losing. For someone to win, someone else has to lose, this goes without saying.

On Sunday, Virat Kohli, the sporting genius, who has often tarred his image with boorish displays of ugly aggression on the field, did something more than just guide his team to victory. He revealed an aspect of himself that so far has remained shrouded in those bouts of unnecessary anger that has done little credit to his stature, both as a player with  special talent and as a leader of a team that represents the cricketing aspirations of a nation.

It is hard to believe what he did in times like these where an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is what we preach and practice with unabashed abandon. He went up to the crowd, interrupting his batting stint, and admonished the vast sea of blue that represent the Indian fans, to stop booing his rival teammate Steve Smith.

Through gestures he conveyed his displeasure at their unsporting act and exhorted them to applaud Smith instead of what they were doing. And to follow up, he went up to Smith, shook his hand before getting down to his real business of scoring runs. This was an unprecedented act of genuine empathy with a fellow sportsperson, an extraordinary connect that may have no precedent in Indian sport.

Later in the press conference, Kohli elaborated at his humane act, saying he felt bad not only for Smith but also did not appreciate the fact that his own people, Indians, were indulging in this unacceptable behaviour.  

He put himself in Smith’s shoes and said what if it was him who had in the past done something unacceptable but had apologised for it and was now being treated shabbily by the crowd. He would have felt bad and did not want Smith to be subjected to this trauma.  The Indian skipper felt responsible for the “wrong”  his countrymen were doing, compelling him to interrupt his innings and tell the crowd what he thought of their act.

Kohli, by this one act of exceptional camaraderie, has shown himself to be a sportsman with a rare compassionate heart. This gesture was no ordinary act, it needs to be widely publicised in a world of ours which treats a sporting contest as an act of war, where winning, regardless of its cost is all that matters. Kohli himself has in the past been guilty of propagating this win-at-any-cost theory. But what he did on Sunday sheds a different and a far more positive light on this cricketer’s character. We should all be proud of him.