India vs Australia 2019: Virat Kohli Shushes Crowd for Chanting During Two-Minute Silence in Vizag
Feb 25, 2019 at 3:56 PM
The limited-over competition starts off on an emotional note when teams aligned to pay homage to the 44 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) who lost their lives following a suicide car bomb attack at Lethpora area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14. Ahead of the kick off Vizag Twenty20 International of ongoing India vs Australia 2019 limited-over series, Team India skipper Virat Kohli gestured to the Vizag crowd–to remain silent during the two-minute silence.
It becomes pertinent here that the jampacked crowd started chanting during the two-minute silence. The teams observed silence for the soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. However, the noise pushed Kohli to suggest fans to stay quiet.
With emotions running high, the video revealed infuriated fans were waving and chanting, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ which roughly means, the ‘victory for Mother India’.
Kohli alongside his teammates and Australian players somewhat opt for a low-key celebration. Earlier, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already decided to donate the amount to the families of CRPF jawans by not organising an inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) ceremony, this season.
Also, the Men in Blue wore a black armband to pay tribute to the CRPF jawans, in the wake up of a ghastly attack in Kashmir’s Pulwama.
Earlier, on the eve of the T20I opener, the top-order batsman broke his silence. He expressed condolences to the families of soldiers.
“Our sincere condolences to the families of CRPF soldiers who lost their lives in Pulwama Attack. From the Indian team and the whole set up, we are really shocked about what happened. We’re really sad about the incident that happened,” Kohli told in a pre-game presser in Visakhapatnam.
Here’s the video as both teams pay homage to the CRPF jawans:
https://twitter.com/PRINCE3758458/status/1099931984997031936
Apart from the emotional moments in the field, the Twitterati further slammed those who made noise during the two-minute silence in the memory of CRPF personnel.
One of the Twitter users maintained that we’ve lost it.
According to the other Twitter user chanting amid tribute is ‘disrespectful’.
https://twitter.com/sid_vishy/status/1099662459516932096
The other Twitter user has labelled the crowd noise during Vizag T20I as ‘jingoism’.
https://twitter.com/ShayneDias_/status/1099663142169296897
However, Indi has lost the cliffhanger by three wickets to go down 1-0 in the two-match series. Kohli would expect his boys to level the series with the Bengaluru T20I on February 27.