What makes Virat Kohli tick is the palpable and total commitment to the task and team. Popular appeal and money earnings, after all, are only byproducts and incumbent on how a player fares in his primary vocation.
If there were a popularity poll in the country today, Virat Kohli would win hands down, ahead of any film star, politician, businessman, or another sportsperson.
He is a phenomenon on social media, followed, forwarded and quoted by millions. His manicured beard, fancy haircuts, funky and formal clothes he wears and fashion products he promotes make him a style icon across the length and breadth of the country, language and local cultures no constraints.
This appeal is more tangibly captured in the blizzard of advertisements that Kohli features in currently, which makes him virtually omniscient. Brands chase him like hounds, which have seen his annual earnings in the list of top global sportspersons.
Why, he can even endorse an apparel range that spells wrong wrongly and yet be considered right!
Cricket has always been an obsession in India but few players have reached such dizzying heights of adulation among fans and aficionados alike. Superstardom comes only to a few, and this has to do as much with performance as chemistry.
In the last half centuryodd, one can think of only Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar and M. S. Dhoni who have had the country in so much thrall.
Pataudi’s charm lay in his royal lineage, suave persona, astute captaincy and the fact that he played with a severe handicap that would have stymied anybody else even at junior, leave aside international level.
Gavaskar infused the much missing ‘steel’ into Indian cricket and lifted the pride of the country with his determined batting of such technical certitude that he is rated as perhaps among the three best openers of all time.
Kapil Dev’s wondrous allround skills evoked awe and unfettered joy among fans, won matches for the country, including the pathbreaking 1983 World Cup and ignited a passion for fast bowling the effect of which is being truly felt now.
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