India’s Test skipper Virat Kohli finally broke his silence and gave a reaction on the ball-tempering allegations made by a British tabloid. Virat Kohli, who was awarded man of the match for his brilliant show in the second Test of the ongoing series between India and England, said all these allegations against him are an attempt to take the focus away from the game. Kohli didn’t hold back and said why there was no mention of the incident during the match and even in the second match. Kohli emphasised on the point that all these allegations started making rounds only after India’s thumping win in the second Test match in Vizag.
This is what Virat Kohli said:
“It’s an attempt by some people to take the focus away from the game to be honest. It happened in the Hobart Test between Australia and South Africa (Faf du Plessis has been fined by ICC)
“It didn’t come up in Rajkot. No mention of it till (India’s) Vizag victory,” Kohli said. India lead the five-Test series 1-0. The third Test starts in Mohali on Saturday.
“Newspaper articles don’t matter over ICC. I don’t read newspapers and was told about it later. If I was doing something, ICC would have spoken to me,” said Virat Kohli.
Anil Kumble also spoke on the matter and said:
“First of all, I don’t want to react to any report in the media. As far as I am concerned, umpires as well as the match referee never ever came to us talking about it.
“For someone like Faf du Plessis — South Africa played exceptional cricket to beat Australia, to be told about ball tampering is silly. There is nothing to worry about, people can allege and write whatever they want. As far as we are concerned, none of our players were part of it,” said Kumble.
England’s captain Alastair Cook took a very diplomatic stance on the issue:
“There is a grey area at this moment. Players are slightly confused at this point and the ICC needs to clarify,” said Alastair Cook.
“I haven’t seen the footage closely to comment on it. You just happen to have lolly in your mouth or chewing gum or jelly beans you don’t know what is acceptable or not.
“See whether the sweet was taken to the ball or it was just salvia, players are waiting for ICC to clarify in the last 10 days,” Cook added.
