Cricketers might be the ‘gentleman’s game’, however, it doesn’t stop players from playing mind games with each other to get a competitive advantage. Recently, former England batsman Nick Compton revealed how the England cricket team had sledged team India’s skipper Virat Kohli over his ex-girlfriend.
Well, it happened during England’s tour of India in the year 2012, when the England cricketers sledged Virat Kohli throughout the series after confronting Compton for talking with his ex-girlfriend. Crompton revealed that he had met ex-girlfriend of Virat Kohli during a night out before the series started and talked to her and Virat Kohli wasn’t pleased about it.
Kohli wanted to have a “few words” with him when he would walk out to bat, however, this didn’t work out in favor of Virat Kohli as the England cricketers tried to use it against him on-field. He said:
“I specially got a few words from Virat Kohli during the series. I think I bumped into his ex-girlfriend at the time before the series. It was an evening with Kevin Pietersen, myself, Yuvraj Singh. All of us were there and she was there,”
“And I just chatted to her. And I think the word got back that I was speaking to her and I don’t think Virat Kohli was very happy with that. I think he had a few words to say to me every time I walked out to bat,”
He added:
“I think he was trying to say that it was his girlfriend, and she was saying that it was her ex-boyfriend, so it was like, who’s got the story right here?”
“It was quite funny at the time, I think the players, especially in the England camp, caught hold of it. So we used it as a way to keep winding him up and try to get into his head, but you know, he’s a world-class performer and he came back to score a good hundred in the last match and obviously his career has gone from strength to strength,”
However, Compton mentioned that everything was in a good mood and how when he recalls the incident he ends up smiling about it. He said:
“But it was quite a funny joke that we had throughout the series and something that I always smile about. But it was all in good faith,”
During this series, England cricket team went on to win the series by 2-1 after amazing performances from Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook, who scored 3 centuries in the 4 matches he played.
