ICC World Cup 2019 | Steve Smith did nothing to be booed, says Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli has stated that the boos directed towards Steve Smith at The Oval, during Sunday’s encounter between India and Australia, were not right. The crowd was chanting “cheater” when Steve Smith was fielding near the boundary and Kohli asked the crowd to cheer rather than boo.
Steve Smith and David Warner are back in international cricket after serving a 12-month ban for their involvement in the ball tampering scandal. The duo have been at the receiving end of the crowd since then and Sunday was no different. The crowd shouted chants of ‘cheater’, directing them towards Steve Smith. Virat Kohli was at the crease then and gestured the crowd to rather cheer for Australia. The Indian skipper feels that the behaviour dished out to Smith is wrong.
“He didn’t do anything to be booed, he was just playing cricket. If I was in a position where something had happened to me, where I had apologised, accepted it and then came back I wouldn’t like it either,” he told reporters, reported AFP.
“Look I think what’s happened has happened, long back. The guy is trying to play well for his side. It’s not good to see someone down like that to be honest,” he added.
During the second Test of Australia’s tour of India in 2017, Smith had looked towards the dressing room in order to get help for a review, which is against the rules. Kohli and his counterpart Smith had a duel and the Indian skipper had stopped short of calling the then Australian skipper a cheat. However, the top-ranked batsman feels that a player should not be reminded of his mistakes every time he steps on the field.
“We’ve had a few issues in the past, a few arguments on the field, but you don’t want to see a guy feeling that every time he goes out to play,” expressed the 30-year-old.
Kohli even revealed that he apologised to Smith on behalf of the fans.
“He is coming back, he’s playing hard and just getting on with it. There were a lot of Indian fans here and I just didn’t want them to set a bad example. I just told him ‘sorry on behalf of the crowd’. In my opinion I didn’t think that was acceptable,” he concluded.
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