ICC Chief Executive touts 'Virat Kohli' as a 'larger than life' character; praises MS Dhoni as well

Both Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are two of India’s stalwarts in the national cricket team. While, the former is in the middle of a purple patch, especially with the willow, Dhoni is in the twilight of his career and is straining to make much of an impact with the willow. With the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales knocking on the door, they are expected to play a pivotal role.

Dhoni retired from Test cricket back in 2014 and hence isn’t a part of India’s squad for the five-match Test series against England. On the other end, Kohli scored 149 and 51 runs against the Brits and yet couldn’t help his team evade a 31-run defeat at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The second Test starts on August 9 at the iconic Lord’s and Kohli’s boys would be keen to make a comeback.

On the field the cricket needs its larger than life characters

Recently, Dave Richardson, the Chief Executive of International Cricket Council (ICC) hailed Virat and a few others as ‘larger than life’ characters. He also put forth the importance of players like MS Dhoni and Rahul Dravid in the sport. Moreover, he mentioned that heated altercations on the cricket pitch mar the sanctity of the game and aren’t healthy advertisements of cricket.

“On the field the cricket needs its larger than life characters. Its Colin Milburns, Freddie Flintoffs, Shane Warnes, Virat Kohlis, Ben Stokes but we equally it needs its Frank Worrells, its Mahendra Singh Dhonis, its Rahul Dravids, its Colin Cowdreys to make sure that we all stay in the good side of that line,” Cowdrey was quoted as saying at the MCC’s 2018 Cowdrey Lecture.

“Personal abuse, fielders giving send-offs to batsmen who have been dismissed, unnecessary physical contact, players threatening not to play in protest against an umpire’s decision and ball tampering; this isn’t the version of our sport that we want to project to the world,” he added.

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