Virat Kohli will not be treated differently: Surrey Director Alec Stewart

The Indian captain Virat Kohli is all set to feature for Surrey in the month of June where he will ply his trade in his maiden County stint. He will play 3 List A matches first and then will be involved in the same number of four-day games. There is a lot of buzz in the County circuit already ever since the news of one of the best cricketers has come out. However, the director of Surrey County club has revealed how they manage to strike a deal with Virat and what was the response from the BCCI when they contacted him.

Meanwhile, Virat will skip the historic Test match against Afghanistan which will be played on June 14 and will not take part in the two-match T20I series against Ireland as well. He is currently leading Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and will land in England in the last week of May if his team manages to reach the final of the tournament. If they are knocked out early then he will have the opportunity to spend around 10 days in the country prior to his period with the County club starts.

BCCI also was involved in it

Alec Stewart, while speaking to Sportstar, revealed that Surrey contacted Virat Kohli only after he expressed the desire to play ahead of the upcoming England tour. “All I did was just following it up with Virat at that time. At some stage, we kept in contact with him and his advisors just to see [how it goes] and it looked like the BCCI may be involved in it. They finally gave the okay last week and then we announced it on Thursday. It is a long process, and something we were waiting for so that it can benefit two parties,” he said.

Stewart also cleared that there will be no special treatment given to the Indian captain but he will be the part of the team both on and off the field. “If you play for us, you do what the team does. He will be a part of the team both on and off the field. He (Virat) will be no different. He is looking forward to [playing here] and we are looking forward to him arriving,” the former England skipper added.

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