He Didn't Have To Do That: Steve Smith On Virat Kohli's Gesture At World Cup

Just days after Virat Kohli won the ICC Spirit of Cricket award for his gesture for Steve Smith at the 2019 World Cup, the latter has finally spoken about the incident. When India and Australia took on each other in the tournament, Virat Kohli had asked the Indian fans not to boo Steve Smith but clap for him.

Steve Smith had just made a return to his national team after serving a year-long ban, which was handed out to him for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in 2018. And thus during the game, he faced ‘cheater, cheater’ chants from the Indians fans. However, Kohli signalled the crowd to applaud Steve Smith and not jeer at him.

After the game, the former Australia skipper had praised Virat Kohli for his gesture. However, he has now said that although it was a nice gesture from the India skipper, he did not really have to do that.

“In the World Cup it was really nice of Virat (Kohli) to do what he did. He did not have to do that and yeah it was a lovely gesture and really appreciated that,” Smith told IANS.

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Virat Kohli, nonetheless, won the Spirit of Cricket award for his gesture. Speaking after receiving the award, Kohli had said that he was surprised to receive that award after being under the scanner for all the wrong reasons for so long. He had also spoken about the incident and explained why he asked the Indian fans to stop jeering Smith.

“I’m surprised that I have got it, after many years of being under the scanner for the wrong things,” he had said.

“That moment was purely understanding an individual’s situation. I don’t think a guy who is coming out of a situation like that needs to be taken advantage of.

“That should not be a representation of our fans and what we stand as a cricketing nation, a sporting nation. We need to all take responsibility towards that. Intimidate the opposition, definitely try and have an upper hand but in a matter that is not targeting someone emotionally. That is not acceptable at any level and people should be wary of that,” he added.