Virat Kohli—Cricketer par excellence, inspirational, and grounded, is a leader the youth looks up to, for more reasons than one
Photographer: Colston Julian / Hello!
Flashback April 2011. The Indian cricket team had just won the ICC Cricket World Cup at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, and while the country went into delirious elation, the youngest member of the team carried his idol, Sachin Tendulkar, on his shoulders for an emotional lap of honour. Displaying a great poise and flair, he said, “Sachin Tendulkar has carried Indian cricket on his shoulders for 21 years. So it was fitting that we carried him on our shoulders after this win.” Little did the then 23-year-old know that one day, he will be shouldering a similar responsibility as the captain of the Indian cricket team.
Virat Kohli, who had been asking his father to bowl at him since he was three, entered a professional training school at the age of nine, and was selected to play for the under-19 Indian team in 2006, and led it to a victory (as captain) at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He reveals in an interview that whenever he watched the Indian team chasing a score, and the team faltered, he would turn off the TV and go to sleep, dreaming that if he was in the blue jersey he would have made it. Life came a full circle when he was presented with the opportunities to do so. That, he believes, is the power of the mind, the power of conviction.
Flashback April 2011. The Indian cricket team had just won the ICC Cricket World Cup at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, and while the country went into delirious elation, the youngest member of the team carried his idol, Sachin Tendulkar, on his shoulders for an emotional lap of honour. Displaying a great poise and flair, he said, “Sachin Tendulkar has carried Indian cricket on his shoulders for 21 years. So it was fitting that we carried him on our shoulders after this win.” Little did the then 23-year-old know that one day, he will be shouldering a similar responsibility as the captain of the Indian cricket team.
Virat Kohli, who had been asking his father to bowl at him since he was three, entered a professional training school at the age of nine, and was selected to play for the under-19 Indian team in 2006, and led it to a victory (as captain) at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He reveals in an interview that whenever he watched the Indian team chasing a score, and the team faltered, he would turn off the TV and go to sleep, dreaming that if he was in the blue jersey he would have made it. Life came a full circle when he was presented with the opportunities to do so. That, he believes, is the power of the mind, the power of conviction.
On Sachin Tendulkar
The young Virat always worked hard to better his skill, and like every other boy, idolised Sachin Tendulkar. In fact, in an interview, he admitted to have retorted something to the effect that one day he too will play like Tendulkar when his hard work was questioned. For him, Tendulkar was a person whose name you took to set goals, as he did for himself, quite young: “I will be like him and play for my country one day.”
Virat believes that it was Tendulkar who revolutionised the sport in our country, purely with the way he went on to do things. “He changed the outlook of the game and unlocked new abilities for people to believe in. He made the sport more exciting,” he said in a 2019 interview. He has always maintained that it was captivating to watch Tendulkar bat, a “pure joy”. After having shared space on the same team board as Tendulkar for a few years, Virat learnt many values from the living legend, the topmost being humility and absolute commitment to the sport.
Photographer: Colston Julian / Hello!
The young Virat always worked hard to better his skill, and like every other boy, idolised Sachin Tendulkar. In fact, in an interview, he admitted to have retorted something to the effect that one day he too will play like Tendulkar when his hard work was questioned. For him, Tendulkar was a person whose name you took to set goals, as he did for himself, quite young: “I will be like him and play for my country one day.”
Virat believes that it was Tendulkar who revolutionised the sport in our country, purely with the way he went on to do things. “He changed the outlook of the game and unlocked new abilities for people to believe in. He made the sport more exciting,” he said in a 2019 interview. He has always maintained that it was captivating to watch Tendulkar bat, a “pure joy”. After having shared space on the same team board as Tendulkar for a few years, Virat learnt many values from the living legend, the topmost being humility and absolute commitment to the sport.
On influencing millions
A part of the Time Magazine Top 100 Influential People list of 2018, and half of one of India’s most powerful celebrity couples, Virushka, Virat today is a name to watch out for. He is in relentless demand in most parts of the cricketing world, let alone India. His social media following (64.2 million on Instagram, and counting) only shows how this sportsman is treasured by the majority of India’s 1.3 billion strong population, and not just the regular 400 million cricket viewers.
Although he knows that skill building and innovation in the sport, he feels that the opportunity he is presented with lies in motivating people in a unique manner, which is improving the culture of cricket and the way cricketers should aspire to play for the country. He wants to motivate them to “work hard on their fitness, be disciplined, take care of their diet, take it to the absolute peak of professionalism”.
But following and adulation aside, it is the act of gratitude that overwhelms Virat the most. Remembering his middle-class roots, he said in an interview, “If someone comes up to me and tells me I have impacted their life in a certain manner, I will obviously get very emotional because I know where I come from.” He believes that there is nothing bigger than having a positive impact on another human being. “Apart from all your achievements and the numbers in what you do, when someone comes and says, ‘I really appreciate the effort you put in my life and you helped me at some stage and I’m really grateful for that,’ I have never felt a gratitude stronger than that,” Virat said in an interview.
In 2003, he set up the Virat Kohli Foundation to raise funds for creating an environment that would nurture children to grow into talented sportspersons and good human beings. The foundation provides scholarships to talented athletes in their quest for excellence.
On wife Anushka Sharma
One can’t deny the fact that together, Kohli and wife Anushka Sharma wield immense power, offer infinite hope, and spread great joy in sharing nuggets of their lives with their fans. Virat met Anushka at a commercial shoot for a shampoo, and cracked a joke to mask his nervousness. Gradually, over the three-day shoot they developed a bond which grew into a strong friendship, and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, apart from looking up to each other, they have also learned to imbibe the more affable aspects from one another.
“When you are with someone who is at the same level as you in terms of being in the public eye, understanding the pressures,
then you can literally speak to each other about whatever is going on in your mind,” he said in an interview. He admitted to learning several qualities like “things of acceptance, things of working on myself, things of just looking at the world in a different manner, not being closed” from Sharma while she learned things in terms of motivating herself and trying out new things from him.
Also read: At the Helm Of The Most Popular Infocom Co., Akash Ambani Knows How To Lead
A part of the Time Magazine Top 100 Influential People list of 2018, and half of one of India’s most powerful celebrity couples, Virushka, Virat today is a name to watch out for. He is in relentless demand in most parts of the cricketing world, let alone India. His social media following (64.2 million on Instagram, and counting) only shows how this sportsman is treasured by the majority of India’s 1.3 billion strong population, and not just the regular 400 million cricket viewers.
Although he knows that skill building and innovation in the sport, he feels that the opportunity he is presented with lies in motivating people in a unique manner, which is improving the culture of cricket and the way cricketers should aspire to play for the country. He wants to motivate them to “work hard on their fitness, be disciplined, take care of their diet, take it to the absolute peak of professionalism”.
But following and adulation aside, it is the act of gratitude that overwhelms Virat the most. Remembering his middle-class roots, he said in an interview, “If someone comes up to me and tells me I have impacted their life in a certain manner, I will obviously get very emotional because I know where I come from.” He believes that there is nothing bigger than having a positive impact on another human being. “Apart from all your achievements and the numbers in what you do, when someone comes and says, ‘I really appreciate the effort you put in my life and you helped me at some stage and I’m really grateful for that,’ I have never felt a gratitude stronger than that,” Virat said in an interview.
In 2003, he set up the Virat Kohli Foundation to raise funds for creating an environment that would nurture children to grow into talented sportspersons and good human beings. The foundation provides scholarships to talented athletes in their quest for excellence.
On wife Anushka Sharma
One can’t deny the fact that together, Kohli and wife Anushka Sharma wield immense power, offer infinite hope, and spread great joy in sharing nuggets of their lives with their fans. Virat met Anushka at a commercial shoot for a shampoo, and cracked a joke to mask his nervousness. Gradually, over the three-day shoot they developed a bond which grew into a strong friendship, and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, apart from looking up to each other, they have also learned to imbibe the more affable aspects from one another.
“When you are with someone who is at the same level as you in terms of being in the public eye, understanding the pressures,
then you can literally speak to each other about whatever is going on in your mind,” he said in an interview. He admitted to learning several qualities like “things of acceptance, things of working on myself, things of just looking at the world in a different manner, not being closed” from Sharma while she learned things in terms of motivating herself and trying out new things from him.
Also read: At the Helm Of The Most Popular Infocom Co., Akash Ambani Knows How To Lead
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