The India vs Australia clash in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup clash at The Oval was electric and full of raw emotion and drama. Virat Kohli’s team had made a great start and were dominating the Australian bowlers. However, there was one particular incident that grabbed the attention of many people on social media and on TV. In one particular section of the crowd which was filled with Indian spectators, they had resorted to booing Steve Smith. The backdrop was that Steve Smith, along with David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were banned for a year by Cricket Australia when they were caught ball-tampering using sandpaper during the Cape Town Test in South Africa in 2018. The incident, known as sandpapergate, was condemned widely and Steve Smith along with David Warner served their entire one-year ban. Their bans ended during the World Cup but the Indian crowd did not make Steve Smith forget about the incident.
However, in a show of sportsmanship that helped Virat Kohli win the 2019 ICC Spirit of the Game award, Virat Kohli went up to the crowd and asked them to show respect to Steve Smith. This incident won Virat Kohli universal acclaim and Steve Smith himself messaged Virat Kohli to show his appreciation.
Now, before the start of the Pink Ball Test in Adelaide, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith sat down and had a chat which was uploaded by the official Twitter handle of the BCCI. In that interaction, Virat Kohli finally revealed the reason for which he had gone to the crowd and asked them to stop booing Steve Smith.
SPECIAL - The two greats - @imVkohli & @stevesmith49 talk cricket.
Two batting geniuses sit down to talk about their love for the game, batting techniques & having more to life than just cricket.
You do not want to miss this!
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 16, 2020
When Steve Smith asked the question and once again thanked the Indian skipper for the gesture, Virat Kohli responded, “To me, there was an incident that happened, You guys had realised what had happened. You came back after a long time. Having gone through everything that you had gone through. I feel that nothing in life can be that permanent. I felt it was not fair to target an individual personally. As much as you play against each other, there is a human side to it. We are chatting now. We did have a chat few times in the IPL. There will be instances where you will keep meeting individuals. You are competitive on the field. You don’t want to go nasty as well. That is one of the things I realised, long term like you do realise the importance of things at a larger perspective and I felt that was not right to do at that point in time.”
In the World Cup match, Shikhar Dhawan blasted 117 while Virat Kohli hit an amazing 82. Along with the likes of KL Rahul, MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya, India notched up a brilliant 352/5. In response, David Warner and Steve Smith hit fifties while Alex Carey kept Australia in the hunt with a brilliant 55 off 35 balls. However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets apiece and they were well-assisted by Yuzvendra Chahal as India won the match by 36 runs.
This was India’s second win against Australia in World Cups in 27 years and although they topped the points table, they were dumped out in the semi-final by New Zealand in Old Trafford.
Even after that match in The Oval, Virat Kohli was asked the question on why he asked the crowd to stop booing Steve Smith. He responded, "If I was in a position where something had happened with me, and I’d apologised and accepted it, and came back and still I would get booed, I wouldn’t like it either.”