Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know India registered a 36-run victory over Australia in their second World Cup match.
It was a clash with a heavy dose of aggression, passion and most importantly, sportsmanship.
2 in 2 for #TeamIndia as they clinch the ODI against Australia by 36 runs #CWC19 #INDvAUS 🇮🇳🇮🇳💙💙
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 9, 2019
Full scorecard here https://t.co/T0QT6nNmtc pic.twitter.com/Ux2c5NkgXA
Batting for India, captain Kohli heard fans from the country booing Steve Smith and calling him a ‘cheater’. Angered by this, he stepped forward and gestured towards them, as if to ask why they were doing that. He also asked them to cheer for him instead.
The video of him doing this started going viral, with people applauding his gesture.
Virat Kohli gestures India fans at The Oval to applaud Steve Smith, not boo him.. respect pic.twitter.com/ynimzHrejq
— ullas Jayaram (@ulla1984) June 9, 2019
Seeing the whole matter blow up, someone asked him during a press conference the reason behind his actions. And he said:
It’s not good to see someone go down like that. We’ve had issues in the past, we’ve had arguments on the field but you don’t want the guy to feel that heat every time he goes out to play. What’s happened has happened, he has come back, he is working hard, he is playing well for his side now.
Virat Kohli has earned my respect so much over the recent years. He is an outstanding cricketer and now he is proving himself to be an amazing human being too. The way he defended Steve Smith and asked his fans to not to boo him, is an example of it. #CWC19 #ViratKohli
— Taimoor Jamil (@TaimoorJamil1) June 10, 2019
While further adding:
Just because there’s so many Indian fans here, I just didn’t want them to set a bad example, to be honest, because he didn’t do anything to be booed in my opinion.
Wow. How good is this from Virat Kohli? Steve Smith is sent to field on the boundary, and immediately cops the most hideous boos from the Indian fans. So Kohli turns to that stand and gestures for them to clap Smith. #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/GBTPaolOXh
— Sam Landsberger 🗯 (@SamLandsberger) June 9, 2019
Kohli also mentioned that he later went and apologised to him on behalf of the crowd because he thinks what happened is unfair.
“If I was in a position where something had happened with me, and I’d apologised and accepted it, and came back and still I would get booed, I wouldn’t like it either.”#ViratKohli on why he asked the fans to stop booing Steve Smith. #CWC19 | #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/CIMicjoSA0
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) June 9, 2019