I am not a firm believer of team motivation, nevertheless, I believe in getting the team ready! When I say this I mean confidence of a team to play great cricket in the field.
Whether you are focused on your individual goals, or responsible for keeping your team on tracks, you have plenty of inspiration to be gained from sporting greats.
When you are a recipient of numerous accolades like Padmashri, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna award, etc. I’m sure that one would be burdened by the anxiety to enrich the performance every passing day.
Virat Kohli is one such young player who has all these burdens on his shoulders, when he or his team performs. The pressure flows from myriad sources— both indoor (from the team and the board) and outdoors (from fans, media, family, and friends).
It’s said pressure brings out the best out of Virat Kohli, but what about his own blood pressure? Virat ended 2020 without a single century across all the formats, his last ton coming from Edens in 2019.
When he fell in love to Anushka Sharma and decided to tie the knot in 2017, he knew their married life will be closely followed and observed by many over-enthusiastic, self-styled custodians of society masquerading as fans. That is an innate source of a pressure in itself.
I remember Anil Kumble once played against West Indies with a broken Jaw, Sachin played against Pakistan with a back injury, Gilchrist was given not out and yet he walked back to the stands in 2003 WC, and Virat congratulated Mohammad Amir for his wonderful spell in the Asian cup — looking at these incidents, I still believe that it’s a gentleman’s game.
One of the biggest disadvantages of the Indian cricket is the name and fame that comes across with it. It’s easy for someone to get carried away with so much of an attention at an early age.Thats why we see so many cricketers loosing out even after a promising start. If cricketers in India can keep all this aside and concentrate on the game of cricket, the media attention and continuous scrutiny of the game and players won’t matter much. Virat has withstood all the test of time and has proved his mettle for India.
Right from 2008 U-19 Kuala Lumpur to the fastest run maker in ODI till date, his journey has been wonderful. I guess, we need to give him a break, and all the credit he deserves, so that he can once again outshine his contemporaries. Empathy is a much needed emotion in sports. I should congratulate him for being one of the biggest performers in cricket, and also being a father.
