Leave it to Virat Kohli to be the game’s statesman.
The firebrand captain won plaudits for his stirring actions in India’s victory over Australia when he angrily gestured to Indian supporters to stop booing Steve Smith, who of course along with fellow ball-tampering culprit David Warner has been the target of vocal fans since his return.
Testament to his overwhelming influence, Kohli might have singlehandedly made spectators re-evaluate their behaviour through his sportsmanship, which made sheepish Australian fans do a backflip on their sentiments towards the polarising Indian talisman.
Away from the hotbed of the field – and when shackled from the team’s minders – Kohli is pretty engaging and eloquent when dealing with the press. His words – and actions – should matter, and they do here but booing and overall fan behaviour is extremely difficult to police. There is not a whole lot of consensus on how fans should actually behave at a sports event.
Right now, one thing is for certain. Booing – and crowd behaviour broadly – is undergoing a recalibration like everything else during these politically correct times. In Australia, the jeering of AFL Indigenous legend Adam Goodes in 2014 has resurfaced after a controversial documentary was recently released.
Goodes, who was named Australian of the Year in 2014 for his determined efforts as an anti-racism campaigner, endured booing that appeared fuelled by a veneer of racism as the confronting documentary outlines – shocking treatment that was somehow misunderstood at the time.
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