Dear Virat! Mumbai says Hi!

[SLICKR392]

i jsut want to know why always just kohli ? he did a first in australia by showing finger to crowd and here again even after being indian he was targeted must be doing something wrong :cantstop:

During the 'middle finger' issue in Australia, Kohli tweeted about it, saying how the Aussie crowd were spitting filth about his family and so on. KP replied to him, saying that they are the worst lot around and its best to ignore them as they go as far to abuse their own players. And KP is usually in the core of attraction during an Ashes series and is a victim of some worse Aussie abuses and he does share some punches but holds the limit. Its alright gesturing the crowd sometimes but Kohli crossed the limit with the middle finger, pointing out some Lankans and hushing the crowd during the CB series. Which is alright (excluding the finger) if you don't do it regularly. Right after the Mumbai incident he now fist pumps the Jaipur crowd. If he feels its unfair to get booed by the crowd as he plays for India, he should realize that these crowd cheer and root for him while he is in the blues.

[Old guy]

During the 'middle finger' issue in Australia, Kohli tweeted about it, saying how the Aussie crowd were spitting filth about his family and so on. KP replied to him, saying that they are the worst lot around and its best to ignore them as they go as far to abuse their own players. And KP is usually in the core of attraction during an Ashes series and is a victim of some worse Aussie abuses and he does share some punches but holds the limit. Its alright gesturing the crowd sometimes but Kohli crossed the limit with the middle finger, pointing out some Lankans and hushing the crowd during the CB series. Which is alright (excluding the finger) if you don't do it regularly. Right after the Mumbai incident he now fist pumps the Jaipur crowd. If he feels its unfair to get booed by the crowd as he plays for India, he should realize that these crowd cheer and root for him while he is in the blues.

crowds can be like that but all im asking is why do they have only problem with him? and only him with crowd mostly? same crowd of australia cheers theirs lungs out when sachin comes out to bat.. u have to earn there respect imo

[Crookbond]

^ He's an easy target - "Delhi Boy" after all. :giggle:

[FischerTal]

akha mumbai gaali dega :giggle:

[zep1706]

Kohli is a D bag when it comes to his attitude. But the Mumbai crowd isn't any better either.

[Prakat]

Some more perspective. Looks like some people need it. I wasn’t quite sure what the chant was about. It didn’t sound like ‘Gayle, Gayle’ or ‘Sixer, sixer’, which is what fans might ask of the batting team, Royal Challengers Bangalore, ordinarily. But then, they were playing at Wankhede, not Chinnaswamy. So were they screaming for Sachin Tendulkar? I was watching the match on TV, and all I could make out were the vowels: ee-aah, ee-aah. It was a while before the word formed properly: ‘Cheater’. So, ‘cheater, cheater’ was the chant. The ‘cheater’ in question was Virat Kohli. Towards the end of the Mumbai Indians innings, Ambati Rayudu was trying to make his ground at the non-striker’s end after being sent back by Kieron Pollard. He hit Vinay Kumar’s leg with his bat, and Kohli threw down the stumps with a direct hit. Rayudu was declared run out. The crowd, clearly, did not know all the details, having watched the live version and then, on the stadium’s screen, the freeze-frame of the ball hitting the stumps. But during the break between innings, more details must have filtered in. So when the Bangalore innings started, and then when Kohli came in to bat, the public decided they would make their opinion, well, public. There are a number of debates that this sequence of events throws up. One, about the intangible but ever-present Spirit of Cricket. Kohli’s decision not to withdraw the appeal, with Mumbai then on 169 for 5, was a simple one aimed at trying to keep the Mumbai score to a minimum. It was completely legal, if not entirely ethical. Perhaps it would have led to a more heated debate had this been a Test match. But perhaps, in this age of cutthroat competition and professionalism, and in the IPL, it’s best left undiscussed. The second one is about fan loyalty and regionalism in Indian cricket. Mumbai has always been the dominant ‘region’ in Indian cricket, though its clout has diminished in recent times. On the field, Delhi, its closest competitor, has won the Ranji Trophy just seven times to Mumbai’s 40. Among cricket fans, there’s little love lost between Mumbaikars and Delhiites, or for that matter between Mumbaikars and people in the southern power centres of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The IPL is designed to create fan loyalties even if the clubs have very little of the corresponding cities in them, whether by way of culture, spirit or personnel. That it has over the years actually created a frenzy – driven purely by the marketing guys – is often quite incomprehensible to me. And, as I’ve said before, probably unsustainable. But it’s there for now. Or perhaps a more plausible explanation might be that the stadium is a colisseum and the crowd wants blood – in cricket terms, that’s high-adrenaline entertainment. The third debate is on a related point, and something Kohli pointed to after the game: “I don’t know why they (fans) get so worked up during the IPL. It is not the end of the world. They forget that the players they are booing at also play for their country. It is only creating hatred among the players. When I come back and play for India, they are going to cheer for me.” Fair enough, except the use of the word ‘hatred’ maybe, but Kohli didn’t leave it at that. Perhaps he was a bit worked up, and the big defeat can’t have helped. He went on to say: “I don’t know what is wrong with people at this venue. If it was an intentional interruption from the bowler, then the umpire would have stopped the batsman (from walking off). It is his job, not mine. You should have that much cricket awareness. Whoever wins or loses, in any of the games in Bangalore, every captain is cheered, every Indian player is cheered. People appreciate good cricket.” To me, if anything, this mouthing off against the people of a city is even more unbecoming of a sportsperson than the conduct of the fans. And I say this despite Indian cricket fans having conducted themselves reprehensibly on many occasions in the past: from the 1996 World Cup semifinal at Eden Gardens to vandalising Mohammad Kaif’s house in 2003, with other incidents before, in between and since. As far as I am concerned, a sport exists because of the people who watch it. The crowd is an unempowered entity that can only do two things during a match – cheer and jeer – and only one more thing afterwards, which is to talk about the game, on street corners and on Twitter. An international sportsperson must be able to take all reactions in his stride, and know that he is who he is because of his fans. The fans don’t exist because of him. For better or worse, crowds will heckle. But as long as it is not racist, sexist or fundamentally hateful, it’s all in the spirit of sharing the energy of the game. And the man touted as the future captain of the Indian national team should understand that quickly. http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-blog/kohli-crowd-reaction-stride/60397

[Crookbond]

http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=297544

[Prakat]

Found it in New Posts then when I checked IPL forum after an hour thought it had been deleted.

[diga]

spirit of cricket is not one way street...

The sixth edition of the Indian Pemier League is far from over and the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s skipper has unwittingly gotten himself into two major controversies already. The first one was his on-field spat with his rival number in Kolkata Knight Riders -- Gautam Gambhir -- and the second one was his fall-out with the Mumbai crowd at the Wan*khede. On both these occasions he has been painted to be the main culprit. But let’s play the devil’s advocate here. To be fair to the 23-year-old, he was only reacting to extreme provocations in both the cases. But such has been his manner of conduct in the past that the finger of suspicion is always held against him. Kohli confronted Gambhir only when the out-of-favour India opener hurled something obscene at him at Chinnaswamy. And he criticised the Mumbai Indians’ fans for constantly jeering him, without any justification, during his team’s 58-run loss on Saturday. The opinions with regard to his outbursts against the crowd behaviour are understandably divided depending upon where your loyalties lie. But quite evidently, it’s neither his design nor desire to get into such situations which do no good to his image of future India captain. Kohli, in fact, is a bundle of contradictions. During his interactions with the media, he comes across as a mature individual with clear, refined thoughts on the game. It was thus perplexing to see him lash out at the misbehaving section of the crowd. By his own admission, Kohli wasn’t the first player to be booed at the Wankhede. That illustrious list includes the likes of Mumbai’s own Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh. During a one-day international against Australia in 2007 in Mumbai, some of the spectators were even evicted from the stadium for racially abusing all-rounder Andrew Symonds. Given the precedent, Kohli, one might suggest, would have been better of ignoring the heckling instead of venting it out. But then again, it could be infuriating for anybody to be held guilty when the truth is otherwise. Ambati Rayudu’s run-out, the reason behind Kohli being derided as ‘cheater’, was perfectly legal but was deemed unethical. Again a paradox; how can something that is unethical be legal? Yes, there were ‘bodyline’ and ‘under-arm’ bowling incidents which were well within the laws of the game when they were executed. But they were so unprincipled that the laws of the game had to be changed. The run-out dismissals, similar to that of Rayudu, have been effected on several occasions in the past but the law has remained the same. As recently as in early 2012, Brett Lee stood in the way of Tendulkar during a one-dayer in the tri-series in Australia, forcing the batsman to take a deviation that cost him his wicket. Tendulkar was visibly upset but the umpire gave him out. It was as simple as that. Kohli wasn’t far off the mark when he said it is important to have the knowledge of the game. Spirit of the game is a highly abused phrase in cricket. It often tends to make a martyr out of a naive. Why should sportsmanship apply only to the fielding side? How about a batsman accepting his mistake and walking off? The practice of umpires or the batsman at the other end (in this case Kieron Pollard) suggesting the fielding captain that he may want to withdraw the appeal also has to stop. It not only puts that player in an uneasy situation but also sends a wrong signal to the crowd who have neither any access to expert commentary nor the majority of them is nuanced with the laws of the game, leading to such behaviour.

[suraj]

what a horrible article

[StriKe]

Virat Kohli: A product of our times

The booing of Virat Kohli by spectators at the Wankhede Stadium and his subsequent dig at those people at the post-match presentation has been the subject of intense debates. It’s easy to take positions from our respective couches and dub Kohli as a hot head, unfit to lead India. Most of the self-proclaimed experts on news channels suggest that he should learn to have a level head, both on and off the field, from Sachin Tendulkar. However, those who have played the game, and played it tough, know that the situation is not all that simple. To set things straight, I don’t think Kohli should have called Ambati Rayudu back after being adjudged run out in unfortunate circumstances. The batsman should have been a bit more careful in grounding his bat away from the bowler’s toe. There is a fine line between intentional and unintentional tackle in such situations. The run out of Ambati was unquestionably unintentional on part of the bowler. The resultant reaction of the home crowd is completely irrelevant and blown out of proportion. I think the only error of judgement on part of Kohli was in commenting on how the crowd should behave and making unfavourable comparison of the Mumbai crowd with that of Bangalore. As time goes by and club culture gets stronger in India, such situations will happen on a more frequent basis. Yes, the crowd might forget that you play for India, because at that particular instant they want their club to win. Football players are booed during the premier league matches when they represent different clubs and are cheered when the World Cup comes around. I think that’s something that some players in India have accepted as a part of the game during the IPL while others are still to come to terms with it. Kohli has done this country proud many times and he is very passionate about his game. True, he might have crossed the line of a gentleman cricketer a few times, but we cannot argue his commitment and his exceptional talent. Before judging him, we must not forget Kohli is a product of the times we live in. He belongs to our generation, my generation which stood by Sourav Ganguly swirling his shirt from the Lord’s balcony. That was not very gentlemanly behaviour, was it? But we all shared his emotion because of the way Andrew Flintoff and company behaved during the series. Kohli hasn’t grown up in an oppressed India. This generation has grown up reaping the fruits of a liberalised India. An India no longer known as the land of the snake charmers, but a force to reckon with in almost every field. We have grown up knowing what freedom feels like. We don’t bow down when the opposition gets aggressive. We are not afraid to stand up and fight back. We work hard, work smart and party harder. We just don’t know how to lose. So why do people, the media and cricket experts whine when Kohli gets into a fight with Gautam Gambhir and praise him when he stands up to the overly aggressive Aussies. Have we forgotten how we surrendered umpteen times when the opposition came hard at us and wondered why we won’t stand up to them? Those were the times, the pre-Ganguly era, when the Indian team did not know how to be aggressive on the field. Times have changed. It’s because of players like Kohli, Gambhir, Harbahjan Singh and Yuvraj Singh that the opposition thinks twice before getting into anything remotely connected to sledging. People also try and make ridiculous comparisons between Kohli and Tendulkar and say that he should learn from the great man how to conduct himself on and off the field. Well, if it would have been that simple then we would have seen others in the team also follow the same path. It doesn’t work that way. Tendulkar has been exceptional in the way he has conducted himself well over two decades. He has earned the respect of players and spectators alike all over the world. It’s hard to find a sportsman in his league in any sport who is so down to earth and simple. At the same time it’s a bit unfair to expect Kohli to behave in the same manner. He is just a different human being, who has a different persona, a different way to deal with things. The charm of a team sport like cricket is in the very fact that different individuals with varied personalities gel up to play the game as a team. We have an Indian team with ideal mix — where the captain is one of the coolest players in the world, who leads a string of young players like Kohli who know how to give it back to the opposition and at the same time show aggression with their bats as well. And then we still have the legend himself, Sachin Tendulkar, balancing things. Think about it: this is as perfect a combination as we can hope for. I disagree with the wise school of thought that thinks Kohli should be made captain in near future and that he needs to change a lot in order to do that. Give him some more time to play his game, and the captaincy will come around. With experience, his temper will settle down. But what we don’t want is the aggression to mellow down. These are hard and challenging times for a cricketer who plays all three formats of the game and if we are planning for the future we need someone who can keep up to the challenge.