XtraTime Web Desk: India cricket team captain Virat Kohli exposed the foul practices prevalent in age group selection in state cricket in a recent instagram chat with India football team captain Sunil Chhetri. Kohli revealed that he was once not picked in the age group side as his father refused to do a ‘little extra’ for his selection in spite of fulfilling all criteria.
“In state cricket… sometimes things happen that are not exactly fair… On one occasion, a certain someone did not play by the rules when it came to selection criteria,” Kohli told Chhetri.
“He told my father while I had the merit, a little extra (bribe) was needed to confirm my,” he added.
Kohli went on to narrate that his father who was a honest lawyer by profession did not heed to the suggestion and instead believed that his son will be selected on merit.
“My father was an honest middle-class man who had worked hard all his life to become a successful lawyer. He studied under street lights. He did not even understand what that ‘little extra’ meant. My father simply said, ‘If you want to select Virat, then let it be purely on merit. I will give you nothing extra’,” Kohli added.
Virat wept the whole day following his non selection in age group side. The incident proved to be a big learning lesson for Kohli.
“I didn’t get selected. I cried a lot. I was broken. That incident taught me a lot. I realised that this world runs like this. If you want to progress, do something that no one else is doing. If I had to become successful, I needed to be extraordinary. And I had to achieve this purely through my own effort and hard work. My father showed me the right way, through his actions and not merely words. Those little things had a great impact on me,” Kohli recalled.