Overkill of India-Sri Lanka series: Kohli wants fans to take a call
15 Nov 2017 4:43 PM GMT
Kolkata: Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli on Wednesday left it to the fans to decide if there has been an overkill of India-Sri Lanka contests in recent years, something that had led to dwindling interest in a cicket crazy nation.
India played an away Test series against islanders in 2015 followed by a short limited overs series at home in 2016 and in the current year are playing them full series across formats on home and away basis.
Not to forget, India will again travel to Sri Lanka in 2018 to play the Independence Cup T20 tournament.
When Kohli was asked whether India vs Sri Lanka battle is losing its sheen, he gave a subtle reply.
"It definitely has to be taken into consideration because you don't want fans going away from the game from watching the game. We have to maintain a balance of how to engage fans and keep players fresh at the same time and keep cricket exciting and keep it competitive through out the year. That point will be discussed in future definitely," Kohli dropped enough hints as to what he felt on the issue during the pre-match conference.
The Indian captain feels that fans are one of the biggest stakeholders in the game and they need to be taken into confidence.
"This needs analysis. It has to be done over a period of time by asking the fans who watch the game. For someone watching the game, it is very different than someone involved playing in the game.
"For us, there's no room for saying that 'I don't want to play this game, or you cannot say I don't feel like batting while standing on the crease'. There is no room for that because you will get out and the team will lose. we are at our absolute top intensity all the time."
Kohli made it clear that as cricketers they can only play an opposition that faces them but fans do have a choice to watch what they want to.
"It will be better answered by the fans who watch the game if there's too much cricket being played or repetition of same series for us it's about playing cricket for the country and we will do what we are presented with every time a new series comes up."
Meanwhile, with just one and a half months remaining for India's tour of South Africa, skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday said his charges want to be ready for any challenge anywhere and for that stay eager to play in difficult conditions.
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