One of the greatest cricketers of all time, Virat Kohli has won numerous accolades in his distinguished cricketing career. But, it’s the Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy that has continued to evade him. Despite possessing a formidable squad on multiple occasions, RCB have only managed to go as far as the final of the event. When Virat Kohli was asked if he ever considered joining another franchise, thinking the ‘grass was greener’ on the other side, he answered in affirmative.
In a chat with RCB in 2022, Kohli revealed how multiple franchises approached him to put his name in the auction. But, he decided to remain loyal to the Bengaluru franchise.
“To be very honest I thought about it. Yes, I won’t shy away from it and I have been approached many times as well to come into the auction somehow, put my name there and stuff.
“And then I thought about it, I was like at the end of the day everyone has X numbers of years that they live and then you die and life moves on. There would have been many great people who won trophies but no one addresses you like that. No one addresses you in the room like ‘Oh he’s an IPL champion or he’s a World Cup champion.
“It’s like if you are a good person, people like you, if you’re a bad guy, they just stay away from you and eventually that’s what life is all about,” Kohli explained the mindset behind his decision to stay put at RCB.
For Virat, loyalty to RCB, a franchise that put faith in him when none of the other franchises did, remains more important than joining another team where he could potentially go on to win the IPL trophy.
“For me the understanding that the loyalty with RCB like how I follow my life is far greater for me than the fact that five people in the room will say oh finally you win the IPL with whoever xyz. You feel good for five minutes but then sixth minute you could be miserable with some other issues in the life. So it is not the end of the world for me.
“What this franchise has given me in terms of opportunities in the first three years and believed in me that is the most special thing because as I said there are many teams who had the opportunity, but they didn’t back me, they didn’t believe in me.
“So now when I am successful and I shouldn’t fall to the opinion of people saying ‘but’ the IPL. This was the case with me till 2018 England tour happened. For four years of my life, I was doing well everywhere in the world, the only thing was ‘but England’.
Kohli also revealed that when it comes to making such big decisions, it’s only the opinion of his wife Anushka Sharma that matters to him.
“So there are always going to be ‘but’, you literally can’t live your life like that and I just carry out doing my own things and I actually honestly don’t even bother about a third person beyond myself and Anushka discussing things.
“For me nothing else or no one else’s opinion matters at all.”
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