Indian captain Virat Kohli, on Sunday, during the chat with the football star Sunil Chhetri, recalled what he has learnt from his father. Kohli lost his father at the age of 18 when he was a budding cricketer.
Virat reminisced the old days of cricket when a member of his state cricket association asked for bribe from his father, who refused to do so. His father wanted Virat’s selection only based on his talent without any bribe. Unfortunately, Virat was not selected, but the incident motivated him to do better.
“He told my father that while I had the merit to be selected, a little extra (possibly a bribe) was needed to confirm my selection. My father — an honest middle-class man who had worked hard all his life to become a successful lawyer — did not even understand what ‘little extra’ meant. My father simply said, ‘If you want to select Virat, then let it be purely on merit. I will give you nothing extra,” Virat said on the Instagram live chat show Eleven On Ten hosted by Chhetri.
Virat Kohli said that his father showed him to follow the right path. The aggressive batsman worked harder on his skill to become a sensation.
“I didn’t get selected. I cried a lot; I was broken. But that incident taught me a lot. I realised that I had to be extraordinary to become successful, and that I had to achieve this purely through my own effort and hard work. My father showed me the right way, through action and not merely words,” said Kohli.
The 31-year-old Kohli also disclosed that after his father’s death, he became more passionate about the game. He became more focused and dedicated to his batting.