India captain Virat Kohli’s love-hate relationship with the Australian fans is no secret.
Kohli had become the public villain number one after flashing the middle finger to a section of crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the second Test of India’s tour of Australia in 2011/12, but in the fourth Test, Kohli managed to earn the respect of them by becoming the first and only Indian player to score a century during that disastrous series for the visitors.
During the 2014 tour of Australia, Kohli had managed to leave even a bigger impact on the Aussie crowd, as he made a staggering four centuries and one fifty during the four-match series.
However, Kohli once again hogged the headlines in Australia for all the wrong reasons during this year’s heated Border-Gavaskar series in India. Kohli was very vocal in expressing his feelings during the ongoing series, something that had left the whole of Australia quite unimpressed, as the India skipper received severe criticism from Down Under. Starting from the former players to the media, the Aussies had not left a single chance to take a shot at the 28-year old.
But contrary to the popular belief, former Australia skipper Michael Clarke has dismissed suggestions that Kohli ‘doesn’t have too many fans in Australia’. In fact, Clarke feels Kohli has certain Australian traits in his personality and is a respected person Down Under.
“I disagree that Virat doesn’t have too many fans in Australia. I think Virat has a lot of Australian spirit in him,” said Clarke, who was in Pune to promote Tourism Australia. “To be honest, he plays the game really tough and is really competitive on the field, but he is a nice guy off the field. So when people get to know Virat, they realize that what they see on the field is just his competitive spirit. I can’t think of any Australian cricketer who wasn’t like that every time we walked out on the field. I certainly think there is respect for Virat in Australia.
“You probably are not going to read the positive stuff (about Virat) in the Australian media though. They all want to write a negative story. But I have a great relationship with him and I think he is respectful,” he added.
Clarke further expressed his delight over Cricket Australia and the players reaching an agreement after a prolonged pay dispute.
“It is fantastic that the deal has been done and everybody can focus on cricket. Australia will be travelling to Bangladesh very soon and then we come to India and then the Ashes, so it is wonderful that the game can now move forward. The players can focus on what they do the best – playing – and the administrators can do their job too. I think everybody is sick and tired of talking about it and very happy that it’s over,” he said.
Recently, the BCCI had asked their commentary panel to sign an undertaking of not having any conflict of interest. Speaking about that, the cricketer-turned-commentator said:
“I have no idea if that is the case (that there can be conflict while commentating). To me, the commentary is all about trying to take the viewers as close to the players as possible.
“When the batsman is batting, the viewer should feel like he is sitting beside the batsman and know what he is thinking or what the captain is thinking that time. That’s what I have always seen in the commentary and that’s what I try to do. Your job is to have your opinion and make a call on what you see, so for me, there will be no conflict,” he added.