Kohli has been slammed in for not being sensitive enough to the developments outside the venue and for continuing with the celebrations on the outfield.
How quickly we turn on our heroes. How zealously we enjoy the process of putting them on a pedestal with painstaking determination, only to pull them down at the first hint of perceived apathy.
To say that Virat Kohli has the most frenzied, loyal fanbase across the cricketing world will be no exaggeration. India’s former captain is an unquestioned crowd-puller whose cricketing persona resonates with millions. He has carried the hopes and prayers and good wishes of large sections and seldom disappointed, producing one epic after another with staggering regularity.
A maiden IPL title, on his 18th attempt with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, ought to have been the icing on the cake. Apart from the World Test Championship trophy which will now never be his, the only glaring absence from his brimful cupboard of silverware was the symbol of supremacy in the IPL. That anomaly was corrected four nights back in Ahmedabad; Kohli himself, as one would expect, was the engine room that drove the RCB charge, finishing the tournament as the third highest run-getter while making those runs with flair and panache and a healthy strike-rate that hadn’t always been his staunchest ally.
RCB’s six-run defeat of Punjab Kings on Tuesday night sent RCBians worldwide into the throes of ecstasy. Impromptu street parties broke out in Bengaluru and ran well into the early hours of Wednesday. Kohli was the toast, understandably; single-handedly for 17 years
, he had ensured that the fan base grew in inverse proportion to RCB’s on-field accomplishments. There was a sense of vindication, for him, and his and RCB’s passionate supporters, when the tape was breasted at long last.
Now, Kohli is the object of much scorn and vile abuse on social media, primarily. The social media space is increasingly becoming caustic and nasty, its relative anonymity encouraging keyboard warriors to spew venom without the fear of reprisals and recrimination. In the aftermath of the horrific tragedy outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday evening that swiftly devolved from celebratory to mournful, Kohli has been slammed in certain quarters for not being sensitive enough to the developments outside the venue and for continuing with the celebrations on the outfield of RCB’s home base.