How is Virat Kohli in person? No more petulant than his fans, a Quora thread reveals

After Gabbar Singh, if there is anyone who has left India wondering what he is like in real life, it has to be Virat Kohli.

Is he really the punk-next-door that his on-field antics make him out to be? Is he every girl’s dream boyfriend, ready to fight for her Bollywood ishtyle? Or is he actually a softie who pretends to be a bad boy?

We had noted in an earlier article how the Indian paparazzi have got a new lease of life after Kohli and Anushka Sharma began dating. Soon after, Kohli came out in one of the most vocal criticisms of the Indian cricket fan. He slammed critics for targeting Anushka Sharma for his unfortunate performance in the semi-finals against Australia this World Cup. Not only that, he declared himself the ‘ most consistent player' in the Indian team.

While we are sort of tempted to remind him that the English vocabulary also has a word called ‘humility’, you can’t help but be amazed with Kohli.

So some folks at Quora got on the job and tried to figure out the real Virat Kohli. The responses to ‘How is Virat Kohli in person?’ have been mostly divided - some painting him as the stud, others smirking at his aggression. However, a lot of his fans went to great lengths to suggest that Kohli’s reputation for being rough and insouciant is something that has been made up by detractors and critics in the media.

The thread started by Preetam Jena, quotes from Sachin Tendulkar’s biography to counter allegations Kohli is too aggressive for his own good. “He held out his hands and said his dad had given him these threads, the kind that Indians wear around their wrists for good luck, and he had always wondered who he would give them to. It had to be someone very special. Then he handed them to me before touching my feet as my younger brother. I was speechless.”

“Please don’t go by how media projects a sportsperson,” he warns.

However, a slew of comments following that post seeks to reinstate the idea that Kohli is indeed haughty and dismissive of his fans.

An anonymous post, written by a person who claims to have attended the same cricket training academy as Kohli in Delhi mentions that Kohli was not regular and the few times he turned up, he used to abuse co-players both on and off field. He writes, “I also happen to remember one event when a young boy was batting in the nets and he misjudged a ball completely, and Virat Kohli started laughing at him, the boy was very young (around 10/11 years of age) and the bowler he was facing was of 17/18 years of age.I didn’t like his behaviour at all, a player of his stature should have instead helped him or at least kept quiet but instead he started laughing.”

One Gaurav Karkara claimed that he had met Kohli at Johannesburg, as the young cricketer was making his way to a restaurant. Karkara had asked for his autograph and a picture with him, which Kohli seemed wary of. He allegedly told the autograph-seeker, “Khana khaane jaane do yaar.”

However, if one is aware of the enthusiasm and curiosity of an Indian cricket fan, you can’t help feeling bad for our cricketers. Getting mobbed for autographs when you’re dying of hunger is hardly desirable. Also, the average Indian cricket fan treats the players like demi-gods. The flip-side of that is, they forget to attribute the players with human traits like hunger, bad moods, and the urge to keep personal lives private.

" He was not pleading at all to go for dinner. His tone was quite rude. I don’t exactly remember what all he said but just remember how we felt. We used to stand outside hotel to get clicked with cricketers. They were just leaving hotel when stopped by fans. I think fans stopped each player leaving hotel for pictures. Many refused as well but they were quite humble in doing so," Karkara insists, completely ignoring the fact that such fan behaviour can feel both overwhelming, irritating or tiring for a person subjected to it.

Another user, again ‘anonymous’ has posted a video from 2011 in the thread. It shows the Royal Challenger Bangalore team leaving the field after being defeated by Chennai Super Kings. A group of people (who shot the video) screams, “CSK rocks” at the RCB players from close proximity as they head towards the dressing room. Kohli, then 22 years old, is furious and threatens the guys who obviously tried to ridicule the team for their loss. When Kohli turns around and asks who is laughing, the guys flatly deny making fun of the RCB team, where as the video makes it clear that they intended to target the RCB players.

While much is said about Kohli’s temper, one has to take into account that the Indian cricket fan doesn’t think twice before ridiculing or heckling cricketers, like we see in the video. However, if the cricketer at the receiving end of it loses his cool, he is immediately branded as short tempered and aggressive.

For example, one Priyankar Sharma seems to grudge Kohli even after the cricketer agreed to take a picture with him. “I went to him and requested him if i can have a photograph with him. He replied very arrogantly “can’t u see i am getting the bill done”. I told him very politely that still 1 person is ahead him and in the mean time we can have a photograph clicked. He thought something for a second and said OK,” he said.

The most-read answers on the Quora thread, curiously, reveals one trait that unifies most cricket fans in India - and that is a misplaced sense of entitlement on the cricketers they applaud. Denied an autograph? The cricketer must be a jerk! Had to wait for an autograph? Oh, what a monster he is. It’s as if their love for the game or the ones who play it is not unconditional - the cricketers have to bear the burden of not only the fans’ expectations, but also their adoration.The fact that all Indian cricket fans are not particularly generous or understand sportsmanship, was evident in how many many people, women included, took to social media to slut-shame Anushka Sharma and label her a ‘distraction’.

At a given point of time, the Indian cricket team has 11 players. Now compare that to the sheer number of people watching cricket and wanting to rub shoulders with them, you cannot help but gasp at the predicament of the players. While most cricketers manage to deal with their fans with tough love, someone like Kohli’s impatience is immediately labelled as petulance.

Instead of trying to figure out ‘How is Virat Kohli in person’, perhaps it’s time to think about what the average Indian cricket fan is like.