Criticise Virat Kohli at your peril. Former New Zealand pacer and noted commentator Simon Doull learned it hard. Doull – who is known to be quite forthright with his remarks on air – during IPL 2024 made a comment about Kohli’s strike rate and the former Indian captain’s response at being questioned about the same; and invariably, those comments did not go down well with the Kohli fandom and Doull, like many other commentators, was targeted by the ‘so-called’ fans.
The 54-year-old recently revealed that he even got death threats ‘for one thing that might be slightly negative or construed to be negative’ regarding Kohli. Speaking on the Cricbuzz show, Doull said that he might say a thousand great things about Kohli, but that one negative comment riles up the fans.
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“He’s too good to worry about what if he gets out. He’s too good a player, which was always my point around him. I said a thousand great things about Virat Kohli, but I say one thing that might be slightly negative or construed as negative: I get death threats,” said Doull.
Dinesh Karthik, Kohli’s teammate at the RCB in IPL 2024, was also on the show and reacted to Doull’s revelation, stating that Indian fans need to know the difference between people taking it personally and people talking about his cricketing side.
“That’s pretty sad to hear, though…You go to basketball and football games and see pundits speak about the game. I think the Indian fans should learn the difference between people taking it personally and people talking about his cricketing side. Virat appreciates that,” said Karthik.
Doull added that despite the criticism, he shares great camaraderie with the players. He also pointed out that he had said something similar about Pakistan captain Babar Azam, but he had conversations with him, too, after the games.
“It’s never personal. We’ve had great conversations. I’ve interviewed him at tosses, and we’ve talked after games. There’s never been an issue. It’s the same thing I said about Babar and talked to him after the game. He also told me that the coach had said the same thing to him,” said Doull.
However, Karthik said that criticism of himself in many ways spurs Kohli, and he loves to prove people wrong.
“Virat Kohli would like to write a book on how he was this year. He started okay. Thanks to people like Simon (Doull) and others who spurred him on. And you know that side of Virat Kohli. I think that he thrives on that. He is someone who inadvertently holds on to certain things to do well. He loves people proving him wrong. Even though he might not come out and say this, it really fuels his passion. He is like a molten lava coming out. He is fiery, and you don’t want to be anywhere close to him because you are going to get burnt for sure,” added Karthik.
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