Sandeep Dwivedi writes: As articulate as ever, in the interview titled “Heart to Heart” that went viral, Kohli seemed in a mood to lay it all out. He said that he is looked on as a mentally tough guy and he is one but “everyone has a limit”. (Illustration by C R Sasikumar)
Sandeep Dwivedi writes: With refreshing honesty, the cricketer around whom Indian cricket revolves, has hinted at the importance of work-life balance, reassessed his own ‘brash’ behaviour
Written by Sandeep Dwivedi
Updated: September 3, 2022 9:09:18 am
Virat Kohli says he is feeling “light” these days. He has just returned to cricket after a month-long break where he got the answer to life’s widely asked existential question, which generally leads to self-discovery: “Who am I as a human being?” These are his words.
In an interview with Indian cricket’s long-standing broadcasters Star Sports, said to be his bravest ever, Kohli shared learnings about the Inner Virat. The meat of the interaction is a long philosophical monologue where he says that when the world starts seeing you as an extension of your “profession identity, somewhere you start losing perspective as a human being.” In other words, you start becoming a victim of the hype around you and even subconsciously begin to believe in the marketing folks-handcrafted larger-than-life persona.
It’s in this context that the man credited with changing Indian cricket’s nice-boys image came up with the disclosure that would be the talking point on the eve of the ongoing Asia Cup. “I sat and thought… and then came to the realisation that I was kind of trying to fake my intensity a bit recently,” he said. He didn’t go on to specify the games where the trademark Kohli passion, unknown to the world, was merely skin-deep. But he admitted that before this break, there have been outings when he might have had the usual intense game-face on, behind which was a tired cricketer with a weary body begging for a break.
As articulate as ever, in the interview titled “Heart to Heart” that went viral, Kohli seemed in a mood to lay it all out. He said that he is looked on as a mentally tough guy and he is one but “everyone has a limit”.
Standing at the team hotel balcony with the sun-drenched Dubai bay behind him, Kohli wasn’t holding back. “I was the guy who was looked at as brash… and I was. I was not mature enough but I was true to myself.” Kohli was adding shades of grey to his own portrait and looked more human now. When the five-minute-long riveting answer ends, the interviewer, Jatin Sapru, tries couching king Kohli’s brutally honest “faking intensity” revelation into assorted riders.
“The word that you used right now … that you were ‘trying to fake intensity’ … it’s not that you were doing it intentionally? It is something you realised during this break. It’s so amazing to hear, I hope it even becomes a headline. Fans need to listen to this answer completely,” says Sapru. He suggests a minor tweak. “At times when there is too much love, the layers are not seen. You didn’t use the word that you were intentionally trying to fake it.”
Kohli doesn’t really jump on the unsolicited lifeboat thrown at him. He isn’t sinking, he has actually learnt to cut across the waves and beat the sea. He takes his time, and talks about the importance of taking a step back and how it makes you see the big picture. The former captain also shares how being away from the game gave him a reality check. He had a better understanding of those who didn’t see the game the way he did. Those who misunderstood his life-long motto of playing cricket with his heart. It’s then that he says, “I didn’t know I was faking it, I was in the competitive zone and pushing myself but it wasn’t coming naturally to me.”
Intentionally or unintentionally, the bottom line is that Kohli had been faking intensity on the field recently. He has also been brash and immature. This was a rare occasion when on the official broadcaster channel, king Kohli’s imperfection was being underlined. Ironically, it was king Kohli himself who was being brutally honest in listing his own weaknesses.
Over the years, be it IPL or any India series, Kohli-centric programming has been the staple of broadcasters. The off-season is about playing his past great innings on a loop. During his long run-slump, every flawless cover drive, or even a fine fielding effort got hyped as a harbinger of hope. A half-century would see celebrations spill over to the next few days.
You could feel the pundits cross their fingers when Kohli walked in to bat, armed with a hopeful hunch that this was going to be Kohli’s day. Those in the business of keeping fans invested were contractually obliged to sell dreams and always promise a better tomorrow.
Being objective would invite a nudge, being critical would mean a push. In Indian cricket, Kohli is the sun around which the universe moves. The darling of the ad world, Kohli has a role to play in the zeroes on broadcasting deals. For the wheels to keep moving, he needs to fire.
This is when Indian cricket is at crossroads, with Kohli’s magic waning and the next big brand yet to emerge. KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Shubman Gill are stars, not quite the sun. From Sachin Tendulkar to MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli, the transfer of power has been smooth. For close to three decades, there was always an iconic face, or two, to launch millions of soaps.
Kohli’s intensity had a lot riding on it. He was the brand ambassador of the new aggressive approach with which, we were told, team India was to dominate world cricket. Series and events got sold by putting an intense close-up of king Kohli, the rage on the face threatening to burst their veins, on billboards.
Now suddenly, when Kohli said that at times he was faking the much-celebrated intensity, the ad guys would have panicked. He was even threatening to take breaks. “As a human being you should always know what you want, you should be able to say no and walk away from things”. He was even asking others to stop running around like “headless chickens or be like a rabbit in front of headlights”.
Mentioning Ben Stokes, Trent Boult and Moeen Ali — cricketers who recently took unscheduled breaks or spoke on mental health — he would say others too need to follow these examples. “These are not abnormalities but it’s normal practice for people who are in touch with themselves and know what they want in life,” he said.
This was a sermon to those on the treadmill that never stopped. Profession shouldn’t be the be all and end all. The work-life balance conversation had finally come to India. The world and its sensibilities have changed. Kohli didn’t want to be the ancient comic-book superhero that the broadcaster wanted him to be. He had dropped the mask and cloak and wanted to be real.
sandeep.dwivedi@expressindia.com