Who is Virat Kohli?

October 1, 2012

virat-kohliNew Delhi, October 1: Finding form in cricket is tough. To maintain form is tougher still. For Virat Kohli though, hard-work and a calm approach makes being consistently brilliant, childishly simple.

With more than 25 per cent runs scored by all Indian batsmen in international cricket this year to his credit and part-time bowling that is furthering his prospects, Kohli rushed past Pakistan on Sunday to help his side to another big win. This after a rare error against Australia which had just 15 against his name.

For Kohli, nothing short of a match-winning performance is decent enough. After all, he does have a brilliant knock of 183 against Pakistan to his credit. With the ICC ODI player of the year in his bag and his recent form scripting scintillating wins for India,has become a job description that he can proudly highlight in his resume. And it has been a regular feature.


This 23-year old cricketer hogged the headlines when he went to play a Ranji match a day after his father had passed away.

To touch great heights you need to have deep roots. That is the story of Virat Kohli. His father pushed him into the game cricket but wasn't there when he reached his prime.

The Delhi boy announced himself as India's gen-next, leading India to the under-19 World Cup in 2008.

In his 14th one-dayer for India, half of which he had played as a substitute, Virat fastracked his way to his maiden 100. And his Delhi teammate acknowledged his achievement and gave away his Man of the Match to him.

Consistent success saw Virat get a World Cup call up. And it paid off, as he became the first Indian to score a century on World Cup debut.

In his three and a half year career, Virat has been quite a milestone man. He became the youngest player to lead Delhi in a Ranji game, and also the fastest Indian to get 1000 ODI runs

He's also the only player the Royal Challengers Bangalore retained from their original pool.

In 2011, he was the highest run getter in ODIs, and this year too he's just 5 runs behind Kumar Sangakkara, the leading run getter.


So far he has scored eleven centuries and ten of them have resulted in India wins. In fact he's scored three hundreds in the last four games that he has played.

But it's not just his performances with the bat that have pleased the cricketing world.

After the World Cup win, when Nasser Hussain asked him why he and his teammates carried Sachin Tendulkar on their shoulders, Virat replied: "He has carried us the nation's burden on our shoulders for 21 years. It's time we carried him on our shoulder."

This answer won him many admirers. But it's not just shouldering senior champions; Virat has become quite adept at shouldering the responsibilities of the team when it comes to pacing an innings, a quality that he has displayed in Tests as well. After all, he was the only centurion on India's disastrous tour Down Under.

Virat Kohli's journey to the top has been one, that's filled with hardships. Losing his father at the age of 17, in the middle of a Ranji Trophy match, turned him from a boy to a man, almost overnight.

"It is difficult to suppress such things at such a young age. His father had passed away and he went to play the match. But it was only his willpower. From that very moment he thought positively. From that very moment he became mature. Earlier, he was as bubbly as any kid of that age would be," says his mother.

Vikas Kohli, his brother, believes he couldn't have done what Virat did then. "If I take myself I couldn't have done this."

Virat did it because cricket was his life.


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News Network
March 12,2020

New Delhi, Mar 12: No foreign player will be available for this year's IPL till April 15 due to visa restrictions imposed by the government to contain the novel coronavirus threat, a top BCCI source told PTI on Thursday, casting fresh doubts on the fate of the event.

"The foreign players who play in the IPL come under the Business Visa category. As per the government's directive, they can't come till April 15," a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

The government issued fresh advisory with a ban on all existing foreign visas, except a few categories like diplomatic and employment, till April 15 in the wake of new positive cases of novel coronavirus in the country.

India has reported 60 positive cases in the outbreak which has led to over 4,000 deaths globally.

The fate of the IPL itself will be decided on March 14 at the event's Governing Council meeting in Mumbai. "All decisions will be taken by the GC in Mumbai," the source said.

Having the IPL, starting March 29, played in empty stadiums is an option being explored.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Sunday said the Women's IPL or the Challenger series, as it is better known, is "very much on", ending speculation about the parent body not having a plan for Harmanpreet Kaur and her team.

The men's IPL will be held between September 19 and November 8 or 10 (final date yet to be locked in) in the UAE due to the surge in Covid-19 cases in India. The women's IPL will also be fit in to the schedule, according to the BCCI chief.

"I can confirm to you that the women's IPL is very much on and we do have a plan in place for the national team also," Ganguly told PTI ahead of the IPL Governing Council meeting later on Sunday.

The BCCI president, who is awaiting a Supreme Court verdict on waiver of the cooling-off period to continue in the position, did not divulge details but another senior official privy to the development said that women's Challenger will be held during the last phase of IPL like last year.

"The women's Challenger series is likely to be held between November 1-10 and there could be a camp before that," the source said.

The former India captain also said that the centrally contracted women players will have a camp which has been delayed due to the prevailing situation in the country.

"We couldn't have exposed any of our cricketers -- be it male or female to health risk. It would have been dangerous," Ganguly said.

"The NCA also remained shut because of Covid-19. But we have a plan in place and we will have a camp for women, I can tell you that," he added.

The BCCI's cricket operations team is chalking up a schedule where Indian women are likely to have two full-fledged white-ball series against South Africa and the West Indies before playing the ODI World Cup in New Zealand. 

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Agencies
August 6,2020

New Delhi, Aug 6: The BCCI on Thursday suspended the IPL title sponsorship deal with Chinese mobile phone company Vivo for the event's upcoming edition amid heightened tensions in Sino-India diplomatic ties.

The BCCI sent out a one-line statement, without giving details, saying that Vivo would not be associated with the IPL this year. "The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd have decided to suspend their partnership for Indian Premier League in 2020," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Vivo released its own statement saying that the two entities "have mutually decided to pause their partnership for the 2020 season".

Vivo won the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years from 2018 to 2022 for a reported sum of Rs 2,190 crore, approximately Rs 440 crore per annum.

The two parties are now working out a plan in which Vivo might come back for a fresh three-year period starting 2021 on revised terms.

However, a top BCCI official offered a different view. "Here we are talking about diplomatic tensions and you expect that after November, when IPL ends and before the next IPL starts in April 2021, there would be no anti-China sentiment? Are we serious?" a veteran BCCI official said on conditions of anonymity.

The anti-China sentiment in the country peaked after the violent face-off between the Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh. India lost 20 soldiers in the clash, while China also acknowledged unspecified casualties.

The stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) caused outrage across India with several calls for boycotts of Chinese companies and products.

The BCCI is now likely to float a tender for new IPL title sponsors as mandated by its constitution. The glitzy T20 league starts on Sept. 19 in the UAE, forced out of India due to the rising COVID-19 cases.

The new development is in stark contrast to what came out of Sunday's IPL's Governing Council meeting, where it was decided that Vivo, along with all the other sponsors, will remain on board.

This was after the BCCI had announced in June that all sponsorship deals pertaining to IPL will be reviewed in the aftermath of the clash in the Galwan Valley.

However, after Sunday's meeting, there was a huge backlash on social media about the BCCI holding on to Vivo.

Both parties then began thrashing out an amicable separation plan, at least for this season.

However, the end of this deal could spell losses for the franchises as they get a substantial share from the sponsorship pool. Half of the annual Vivo sponsorship money is distributed equally among eight franchises, which comes to Rs 27.5 crore.

"As of now, it will be very difficult for the BCCI to match the sponsorship amount at such short notice. Therefore, both BCCI and the franchises should be prepared to lose out on some money -- BCCI more but each franchise from Vivo's exit will potentially lose 15 crore," the official said.

"This year will be difficult for everyone but the show must go on," the official said.

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