Kohli is a modern great, he needn’t be loutish

His behaviour is disrespectful towards opponents. Worse, it disrespects the game

The actor, Naseeruddin Shah, has articulated what many Indian cricket fans have been thinking: Virat Kohli is the world’s worst behaved player. “His cricketing brilliance pales beside his arrogance and bad manners,” Shah wrote on Facebook on Monday. This is not new for Kohli. Even before he made his name as a cricketer on the senior circuit, he had made a name for himself as a boorish, bratty lout of a teenager.

That nasty streak, kept somewhat in check when he was a young player in a team peopled by colossuses such as Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid (players whose batsmanship was the sole sign of machismo and competitiveness), has been afforded free expression as Kohli has zoomed upwards in the echelons of the modern game. And it has come to define his on field presence as he has assumed captaincy, been offered the unstinted support of his coach, Ravi Shastri, and swiftly become the single most powerful man in Indian cricket. Moreover, he has tried to fashion the team in his image. Aggression on the field, in terms of play, is no bad thing. But unwarranted aggression in personal conduct goes by another name: loutishness. It is also, in Kohli’s case, exacerbated by a sense of arrogance that he exhibits. Especially over the past few years (coinciding with the strengthening of his position as Indian cricket’s sole centre of power), Kohli has repeatedly behaved in ways that are unbecoming of an India cricket captain, of a man who happens to be an important ambassador of the country.

He does not need to do this. He is a modern great; his batting speaks for itself; and Kohli gains little by saying things that gain him few admirers. There have been aggressive captains in the history of the game (including Sourav Ganguly). But none of them have disrespected their opponents. Kohli’s behaviour is disrespectful towards opponents. Worse, it disrespects the game.