Don't Pry Is the Cry!

Virat Kohli has STRUCK A BAD PATCH, especially in Test cricket. Will the home series against the West Indies provide redemption?

- K. C. Vijaya Kumar

It was a nippy August noon in the heart of London and with India having suffered a 1-3 thrashing in the Test series against England, despair and change hung in the air in equal measure. A group of Indian sports scribes meanwhile hung around the team hotel inside which newly-appointed director Ravi Shastri was interacting with coach Duncan Fletcher and captain M. S. Dhoni.

Just as the sun peeped out, Virat Kohli sauntered out for a walk. He nodded his head and swapped smiles with the waiting correspondents and then did a double-take, turned around and spoke briefly. The gist was his understandable annoyance at the increasing scrutiny around his personal zone. Being the quintessential modern youth, Kohli has been open about his life but what irked him the most was the nudge-nudge-wink-wink style of reportage some sections of the media indulged in vis-a-vis his poor form and the insinuations about his actress-girlfriend briefly being with him in England.

“WRITE ABOUT MY GAME, criticise me if I play a bad shot, and I know I get praised when I play well. I am okay with all that, but please don’t poke into my personal life,” Kohli said. The 25-year-old was perfectly justified in expressing his fair views. And it was imperative that the superfluous gaze on him that was more obsessed with his personal life, had to be negated.