Virat Kohli has played for only Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) since the start
Virat Kohli is synonymous with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The former Indian cricket team captain has played for the franchise since the inaugural 2008 IPL. In 15 seasons with the RCB, Kohli has led them for eight seasons, though the team is yet to win the IPL. In his time with the franchise, Kohli has score 6469 runs in 217 matches at an average of 36.55. Ahead of the IPL 2021 he declared that he would no longer be the RCB captain from the 2022 season. However, Kohli’s love for the franchise remains undiminished despite some lucrative offers to join other teams.
“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,” Kohli said on RCB’s franchisee show on Star Sports.
“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. 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.”
Kohli further added that RCB believed in him and backed him all those years when he was in poor form, especially in the initial phases of his career.
“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,” Kohli said.
“So, now when I am successful and I should 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’. 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 and just being true to ourselves and that’s it. For me nothing else or no one else’s opinion matters at all.”