Mohammad Amir Hails Virat Kohli After He Wins ICC Spirit Of Cricket Award

Pakistan speedster Mohammad Amir has lavished praise on Virat Kohli after the latter won the ICC Spirit of Cricket award at the ICC Awards. Virat Kohli won the award for his gesture towards Australia’s Steve Smith during the 2019 World Cup. During the group match against Australia, Virat Kohli appealed to the crowd not to boo Steve Smith while he was batting and the latter was fielding.

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 Smith and not jeer at him.

“It is part of camaraderie that sportsmen must have with each other,” Kohli said after winning the award. “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,” he recalled.

“You can sledge, can have have banter on the field, you say things to the opposition in wanting to beat them. But booing someone is not in the spirit of any sport, I don’t endorse it,” added Virat Kohli.

And when ICC posted a clip of Virat Kohli’s comments on Twitter, Mohammad Amir could not stop himself from praising the India star. Calling Kohli a great player, Amir hailed his words, writing:

“Great words from great player.”

Great words from great player

— Mohammad Amir (@iamamirofficial) January 15, 2020

While Virat Kohli and Mohammad Amir play for two of the fiercest rivals in international cricket, they do share a great camaraderie. In 2016, Virat Kohli had gifted Amir a bat when the latter returned to international cricket after serving a lengthy ban for spot-fixing.

Also Read: Sourav Ganguly Backs Team India To Bounce Back Against Australia