Kohli taking nothing for granted as records keep tumbling
(Reuters) - Indian captain Virat Kohli has set a new benchmark for consistency but the 29-year-old says he feels no sense of entitlement even after a decade of international cricket.
Kohli became the fastest batsman to reach 10,000 one-day international runs in his 205th innings against West Indies on Wednesday, eclipsing compatriot Sachin Tendulkar’s previous record by an astounding 54 innings.
With over 1000 ODI runs in 2018, Kohli walks out to the crease with an aura of near-invincibility but he said the secret still lies in working hard for every run and never taking things for granted.
“Even after playing for 10 years, I don’t feel like I’m entitled for anything here,” Kohli told BCCI.tv.
“You still have to work hard for every run you score at the international level while playing for your country because there are many people who want this very badly.
“So when you’re in that position yourself, you should have that same hunger and passion. You should never take things for granted, never take it easy at any stage.”
Kohli went on to smash an unbeaten 157 in Visakhapatnam for his 37th century, 12 short of the all-time record held by Tendulkar.
Despite such glowing individual numbers, Kohli insisted his greatest source of joy remains in contributing for the team.
“I’ve just focused on the situation, and I’m glad that I’ve been able to help the team by contributing with the bat,” he added.
“My duty is to score runs and having done that for a long period now, everything has collected together for this moment. But the intention always is to look for what the team needs and just score as many runs as possible.” (Reuters) - Outgoing Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland regrets not being able to intervene earlier in the infamous ball-tampering incident in Cape Town, saying the fallout from the scandal may have been less had he not turned off his television.
Sutherland was watching the match between South Africa and Australian in his Melbourne home but turned off the television before images of Cameron Bancroft using a foreign object to alter the condition of the ball appeared on the screen.
The object was later revealed to be sandpaper and Bancroft, the team’s skipper Steve Smith and his vice captain David Warner were handed lengthy bans for their roles in the scandal during the third test in Cape Town on March 14.
“At a guess it would’ve been about midnight I suppose (that I turned the TV off) but, yeah, I wish I was watching, absolutely, Sutherland said in an interview with ESPN Cricinfo
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/25078073/ja mes-sutherland-reveals-newlands-scandal-regret.
In a news conference after the incident Bancroft, accompanied by Smith, claimed they had used yellow adhesive tape to which dirt had adhered, rather than sandpaper to tamper with the ball’s condition.
Sutherland said he would have advised differently had he been in possession of the facts.
“I’d like to think that my judgement and possibly influence would have meant that the media conference would have gone slightly differently,” he added.
“As we know, that was part of the penalty and the severity of the penalty was to some extent related or at least was consequential in terms of how that was handled — not telling the truth, or not telling the whole truth.”
The 53-year-old said he had been left “heartbroken” by how things had played out but that the scandal would serve as a reminder to current and future generations of players of their responsibilities on and off the pitch.
“I think that in some ways I totally understand that in the heat of battle things can boil over and go awry and there can be regrettable incidents,” Sutherland said.