Any semblance of post-lunchbreak lethargy at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit, powered by Leaders, left the room on Saturday as former India skipper Virat Kohli arrived for a fireside chat with sports presenter Isa Guha at the Dravid-Padukone Excellence Centre in Bengaluru.
Fans, who had booked tickets priced between ₹29,500 and a whopping ₹2,36,000 to listen to the star batter, finally got an answer as to why Kohli hadn’t made any social media post after March 9 when India won the Champions Trophy, the country’s seventh ICC (International Cricket Council) title.
Memes had become the order of the day after a sponsored post featuring a private bank went up from the 36-year-old cricketer’s handle the morning after India’s second ICC title win in under nine months.
“Posting about us winning the Champions Trophy is not going to increase the happiness in my heart. They all know that we’ve won the trophy, so me posting about it is not going to give us two trophies. The reality is going to stay the same. I look at it like that. People saying ‘oh, you’re amazing’ in the comments doesn’t matter,” he said.
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The last time Kohli shared a non-sponsored post from his handle was on July 4 last year when the victorious T20 World Cup team visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence.
“Technology when not attached to a goal can be quite distracting. It is something I have experienced in my playing career. Luckily, I grew up in a time when you didn’t have this thing in your pocket (hinting at a smartphone). It is much easier to keep it on the side… I don’t engage and post a lot these days and people are not happy about that. It is something that I have consciously tried to do. To keep up with that for me was way too much. It was taking away a lot of energy from me because I could utilise that in my game or life,” Kohli said, explaining why he chooses to stay off social media.
At one point during the conversation, Isa said Kohli appeared to be “at peace”. The India batter concurred, saying, “Today, I am not playing for achievements. It’s pretty much come down to the pure joy of playing. As long as that feeling is intact, I will continue playing. I have to be honest about that with myself. I had this interesting conversation with Rahul Dravid when he was our coach. He said one always has to stay in touch with oneself to figure out where one is placed in life.”
Kohli, sensing that a collective gasp had run through the hall when he started to talk about quitting the game, reassured everyone with a laugh. “Don’t get nervous. I am not making any announcements. As of now, everything seems fine,” he said as the audience broke into nervous laughter.
Post India’s loss in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, there were reports circulating that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was planning to not allow the wives and family members to travel with players for the entire tour. For a tournament or series lasting more than 45 days, the wife or family could stay with the cricketer only for two weeks.
But Kohli felt it is, in fact, the family that keeps an athlete motivated. He said, “It is very difficult to explain to people how grounding it is to come back to your family every time you have something intense happening on the outside. I don’t think people have an understanding of what value it brings. I feel quite disappointed about that. People who have no control over what is going on are kind of brought into conversations and put out in the forefront. Maybe they need to be kept away.”
Any semblance of post-lunchbreak lethargy at Summit left the room as former India skipper Virat Kohli arrived for a fireside chat with sports presenter Isa Guha.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Any semblance of post-lunchbreak lethargy at Summit left the room as former India skipper Virat Kohli arrived for a fireside chat with sports presenter Isa Guha.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
From famously uttering “Do I look the pooja-path types? (sic)” in 2016 to transitioning into a god-fearing person of late, Kohli has undergone quite the transformation. And that became evident once again when the chat veered to that one night from the 2022 T20 World Cup when Kohli broke the win predictor—that was showing India’s probability to bag the match at 15 per cent at one point—with an unbeaten 53-ball 82 against Pakistan.
“I felt I was meant to do this, so I should not shy away from going after things that feel ridiculous. Because there is some sort of backing for me (gestures towards the heavens). And I feel I will be taken care of as long as I work hard.”
Kohli’s immense popularity on social media played a huge role in cricket’s inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics programme. Niccolo Campriani, president of the LA Local Organising Committee (LALOG), in fact, had said, “We all recognise the critical importance of a strong digital presence in order to keep the games relevant for the youth. And cricket is offering a unique platform to do so. Think [about] my friend here, Virat. He’s the third-most followed athlete in the world on social media with 314 million followers (387 million as of writing across Instagram, Facebook and X). That’s more than LeBron James, Tom Brady, and Tiger Woods combined. This is the ultimate win-win for LA 28.”
So, when Isa asked if Kohli is going to do a U-turn on his T20I retirement for an Olympic medal, he joked: “If we are playing the gold medal match, I might sneak in for one game.. get a medal and come back home.”
But then, on a more serious note, he said it was one of the best news he had ever woken up to. “When I heard the news, I was happy. The T20 leagues that are played all over the world, including the IPL (Indian Premier League), have played a massive role. It’s a great opportunity. Getting to be Olympic champions would be a great thing. The first of its kind. I am sure we will be somewhere close to the medal.”
It isn’t possible to not mention Neeraj Chopra, India’s only individual track-and-field Olympic gold medallist, when talking about the Summer Games. And Kohli, as expected, went all-out in his praise for the amiable javelin thrower. “He is doing amazing things all over the world. When you meet and speak to him, you can see the calmness and composure. No one needs to tell him how to train and how much to train. Probably he will have to be pulled back. That’s the place you want to be in, and you need to have smart people to guide you.”
In one’s journey as an elite athlete, there are bound to be conflicting moments. Conversations around mental health and one’s psychosocial well-being, thereby, have become the need of the hour. Kohli feels we still don’t talk about it enough. “This is one part that is neglected so much. If I am in my room and choose to be on my social media handle to see what people are saying of me, I will definitely wake up differently and under pressure the next morning. It does change you. The easiest thing is to get carried away. The harder thing is to stay in your own lane and space.”
With a lot of the conclave focussed on India’s growth as a sporting nation and building towards a possible 2036 Olympics in the country, Kohli presented his closing thoughts.
“We are working towards India becoming a sports-forward nation. We have the vision. We have the groundwork happening today. It should be a collective responsibility of everyone involved. It’s not just about the infrastructure or the people who infuse the money. It’s also about the people who watch. We need education. A broadcast show needs to talk about the game and not what I ate yesterday for lunch or my favourite chole-bhature place in Delhi. You can’t have that in cricket matches. Rather, you could talk about what an athlete is going through.”