New Delhi: Virat Kohli, speaking about the improper practices in cricket, said that players are judged too often for their off-field antics rather than their performances. Kohli also spoke about how individuals need to take responsibility to keep the game clean, and how he wishes to inspire a generation.
"I think authorities are doing as much as they can to keep the sport clean. You obviously cannot go into someone's room and tell them not to speak to someone in certain way,” said the Delhi batsman, in a conversation with CNN News 18.
"They can have protocols and they can have rules being set up and that's how much you can do. Eventually, it's up to an individual how he wants to go about his decisions. If individuals chooses to do something wrong, doesn't matter how much you control them," he explained.
However, from a personal point of view Kohli is glad that he has never been approached or been anywhere near such an activity. “No, I have never encountered anything like that anytime in my life fortunately. I love the sport too much. For me, to even explain myself for something that might not even lead to anything. As a cricketer, you feel sad from inside to encounter those situations. Fortunately, I haven't and god willingly, I won't in future also,” the 27-year-old added.
Breaking every other records in sight and starting the year on a high, Kohli chose to stay grounded when asked about his performances and ambitions. He said, "When I finish, if I can inspire people to take up the sport, if I can inspire children to say that we want to play the sport because we want to be like him, that would make me feel like I have achieved something."
Kohli also spoke of his distaste for people who judge cricketers on their off the field activities, rather than their performances on the ground. "As a sporting nation, there is lack of patience in terms of judging someone too quickly," noted Virat. "When I came into the team, I had tattoos, dressed up in a certain way, I used to do things I felt were fine but may be not in the perfect mould of a stereotype Test cricketer. When I now see any youngster being judged early for being a bit more flamboyant, I correct them that there is nothing wrong. Please judge him on what he doing on field, not judge him not in his own life or how he is as a person," Kohli concluded.
