Kohli’s ‘live somewhere else’ remark draws sharp responses

NEW DELHI: Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli was in the eye of a storm on social media yesterday after he suggested a local cricket fan relocate to another country for preferring to watch English or Australian batsmen.

The 30yearold was reading out tweets when he came across one which described Kohli, currently the topranked test bats man, as ‘‘overrated’’ and that Australian and English batsmen were more pleasing to watch than ‘‘these Indians’’.

‘‘I don’t think you should live in India then,’’ Kohli, who has 27.1 million followers on Twitter, said in a video posted on his new app to sell exclusive merchandise.

‘‘You should go and live somewhere else, you know. Why are you living in our country and loving other countries? I don’t mind you not liking me but I don’t think you should live in our country . . . Get your priorities right,’’ he added with a wry smile.

Kohli’s comments evoked sharp reactions as people on social media pulled out a 2008 video, in which Kohli, then captain of the India under19 team, described South African Herschelle Gibbs as his favourite batsman.

His 2016 tweet in which he had congratulated Angelique Kerber on her Australian Open victory, declaring the German as his favourite women’s tennis player, also resurfaced.

‘‘Virat Kohli’s statement is a reflection of the bubble that most famous people either slip into or are forced into,’’ cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle tweeted.

‘‘The voices within it are frequently those that they wish to hear. It is a comfortable bubble and that is why famous people must try hard to prevent it from forming.’’

Kohli, married to Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma, is the biggest name in Indian cricket and his face is plastered on billboards across the cricketobsessed country of 1.3 billion.

A highly successful cricketer with a penchant to get under an opponent’s skin, Kohli is the sole Indian in the Forbes magazine’s 2018 list of the world’s 100 highestpaid athletes. — Reuters