Cricket News

‘To be very honest I thought about it..’ – Virat Kohli opens up about thought of leaving Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise

Virat Kohli is widely recognized as one of the greatest cricketers in history of the game. The legendary India batter has accumulated numerous accolades in his illustrious career. Despite his achievements, the Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy remained elusive for him. Despite leading a strong squad, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have only made it to the tournament final.

He is also the only cricketer who has till now played for just one franchise from the onset. He has been playing for RCB since 2008. When asked, if he ever considered joining another franchise, possibly enticed by the notion that he definitely thought about leaving RCB and play for more money in any other franchise. In a conversation with RCB in 2022, he revealed that multiple franchises had approached him for the auction, but he ultimately chose to remain loyal to the Bengaluru-based team.

“To be very honest I thought about it. Yes, I won’t shy away from it and I have been approached many times as well to come into the auction somehow, put my name there and stuff. And then I thought about it, I was like at the end of the day everyone has X numbers of years that they live and then you die and life moves on. There would have been many great people who won trophies but no one addresses you like that. No one addresses you in the room like ‘Oh he’s an IPL champion or he’s a World Cup champion. It’s like if you are a good person, people like you, if you’re a bad guy, they just stay away from you and eventually that’s what life is all about,” Kohli presented his thought process on remaining with RCB.

The loyalty with RCB like how I follow my life: Virat Kohli

The esteemed batter places a high value on his allegiance to RCB, a franchise that exhibited confidence in him when others did not, prioritizing it over the possibility of joining a different team and potentially winning an IPL trophy. While the joy from such achievements may last for five minutes, the sixth minute could bring about dissatisfaction due to other life issues. Consequently, it is not considered the end of the world for him.

“For me the understanding that the loyalty with RCB like how I follow my life is far greater for me than the fact that five people in the room will say oh finally you win the IPL with whoever xyz. You feel good for five minutes but then sixth minute you could be miserable with some other issues in the life. So it is not the end of the world for me,” Kohli said.