Virat Kohli is undoubtedly one in every of the best of all time on the cricketing field, and despite breaking several records, he continues to go strong. While his batting skills and fitness are unanimously praised, he also grabs the eye again and again resulting from his aggression. While today’s Kohli is way more controlled and calm, there was a time when he almost got banned by the match referee resulting from his unfiltered motion.
During his initial years, Kohli was well-known for his aggressive behavior on the sphere. There have been instances where the veteran cricketer was involved in sledging or heated exchange of words with rivals. But there have been almost some moments where the legendary batsman had a heated banter with the audience. So, today, we’ll be taking a take a look at one such instance where he gave it back to the group with a powerful gesture.
Back in 2012, India had a tour of Australia. During this tour, Virat Kohli faced the warmth of the Australian crowd in the course of the Sydney test. And as expected, Kohli gave it back in style to the abusive crowd by showing a middle finger. This controversial gesture of Kohli garnered attention from throughout, especially the Australian media, which slammed Kohli for his inappropriate behavior.
The aggressive gesture landed Virat Kohli in trouble. The match referee wasn’t comfortable concerning the incident, which the Australian media also known as Fingergate. Reportedly, Kohli was summoned by the match referee, Ranjan Madugalle. Nonetheless, he was lucky enough to not get banned for his behavior.
While talking to Wisden, Virat Kohli shared, “Yeah, the one thing I remember most is once I’d had enough of the Australian crowd at Sydney, and I just decided to flick a finger at them. ‘I’m so cool’. The match referee called me to his room the following day and I’m like, ‘What’s unsuitable?’. He said, ‘What happened on the boundary yesterday?’. I said, ‘Nothing, it was a little bit of banter.’”
He continued, “Then he (referee) threw the newspaper in front of me, and there was this big image of me flicking on the front page, and I said, ‘I’m so sorry, please don’t ban me!’.”
Following this, Virat Kohli admitted his mistake and suffered a 50% deduction from his match fee.
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