Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli has revealed that he has been approached “a few times” by some IPL franchises in the past to put himself up for auction, but he preferred to stick with Royal Challengers Bangalore. The former India captain, who retired as RCB skipper late last season after eight years in charge, is the only cricketer to have played for one franchise since the inaugural edition of the competition in 2008. approached too – to somehow get into the auction – I’ve been thinking about it,” Kohli told the RCB podcast.
“Eventually a person lives a certain number of years, and then you die and life moves on. There have been a lot of great players who have won prizes and the like, but nobody speaks to you like that.”
“If you’re a good person people like you and if you’re a bad guy they stay away from you. In the end, that’s what life is all about.”
Kohli, 33, has played countless match-winning strokes for RCB, who have always boasted star-studded lineups, but have still never managed to win the IPL.
“The loyalty with RCB, like how I follow my life, is much greater than five people saying you finally won the IPL with XYZ. You feel good for five minutes and then the sixth minute you could be miserable with a other problem alive.
“What this franchise has given me for the first three years and believed in me is the most special. There were a lot of teams that had the opportunity. They didn’t support me and they didn’t believe in me.”
Speaking of his time as the franchise’s captain, Kohli said losing the 2016 IPL final is still upsetting.
In the chase of 209, RCB had raced halfway to 114 without a loss, before losing their way and falling eight runs short, ending their incredible season on a sad note.
“That match, I felt like it was written. How could the finals be in Bangalore, and we played that kind of season, and we play that kind of game where we are 100 with no loss in nine overs.
“Even KL (Rahul), to this day, when a highlight pack is running he takes a screenshot and says it still hurts. It does. You had these downcast faces in that awesome win setup we had done for the post-victory celebration. That’s a game where I feel like it hurts.”
The batter added: “It disappoints me. We had opportunities where we came close. At the end of the day, I’m not going to call it luck.
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“The opposition is there to play too and if they are better on the day you have to accept that we have not been as brave or clear in our plans as we should have been at those crucial moments.
“You could say the odds were stacked against us – the only expectation was that we would win – but you have to deal with that. You can’t run away from that.”
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