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Today, I came to what should have been a sobering realisation. Virat Kohli was born a year after me.
He is the captain of the Indian Test team, is dating a super-famous film actress and has a bank balance that I couldn’t attain in several lifetimes. But amid all the self-pity, I had an epiphany: what if the captain of the Indian team is an unhappy man?
Pah! you say. That’s just jealousy talking. Virat has everything a man could want, I can hear you saying.
To that, I offer proof. Have you seen a true-blue smile from Virat Kohli? He scowls, curses and spits. And even when he is amused, his smile is more like a grimace.
And then there’s the fact that he flings about various Hindi versions of the swear word as liberally as he whacks the ball in the nets.
I get where he comes from. I am a Delhi boy too, and there is a certain amount of aggression and crassness that goes with the territory.
But can’t he be happy when he scores a century?
He doesn’t even look happy when he’s with Anushka. Come on man! What’s it going to take?
I know what you’ll say. ‘He is a sportsman, a spectacular one at that. The aggression is what drives him.’
But come on... Dravid was the most reliable guy we had and he was as calm as can be. Sachin has been under the limelight since he was a teenager, and he never abused a journalist. And then there’s Dhoni.
Captain Sahib, these were the guys we grew up idolising. You have their talent, now time for their temperament.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Published: 11 Jun 2015,04:47 PM IST