'You've Got To Be Kidding': Twitter In Disbelief As Virat Kohli Wins ICC Spirit Of Cricket Award

Team India captain Virat Kohli, on Tuesday, won the ICC ‘Spirit of Cricket’ 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.

“Yeah, it was a lovely gesture. It doesn’t really bother me what the crowd do to be perfectly honest, I’m just sort of blocking it all out but it was a lovely gesture from Virat, that’s for sure,” Smith had said after the game.

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Virat Kohli had drawn praise from all around the around for his gesture and the ICC also made sure to recognise it.

“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.

But while Virat Kohli must have been happy to win the special award, there were some fans who were not at all impressed with it and took to Twitter to express their disbelief. Some even said that not Virat Kohli but his New Zealand counterpart Kane Williamson deserved the award.

Here are some of those reactions:

Virat Kohli getting Spirit Of Cricket Award…
Virat Kohli is the elder statesman of the Cricketing World now….
What weird timeline is this

— Gappistan Radio (@GappistanRadio) January 15, 2020

Jokes aside, I would like to congrats kohli for winning 2019 spirit of cricket Award and maybe He deserved to win it. But if he won it just for that gesture for steve smith then seriously I can just laugh at these awards!.

— Aabhash (@Iam_Aabhash) January 15, 2020

Spirit of the year award ?
Feels like some senior citizen type honor.
Kya yaar Kohli come back to your normal self na ?

— Sachi (@Sachi_here) January 15, 2020

Virat Kohli "spirit of cricket 2019?" You've got to be kidding me @ICC #ICCAwards

— Rudri Joshipura (@RJoshipura) January 15, 2020

Filmfare award main SRK ko jaise award dete hain, waise hi hai yeh! Kohli and spirit of cricket??? Kuch Bhi… By awarding one good gesture, they are legitimising his usual bad behaviour. Anyway, hope this inspires him to be more level headed here on. https://t.co/5Ji3pBbPrf

— Virinder Villkhoo (@filmantic) January 15, 2020

Never thought I'd live to see the day when Virat Kohli wins the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award (for his gesture towards Steve Smith in the World Cup). This is like giving Tushhar Kapoor an Oscar for his performance in Golmaal. I guess #BenStokes is a proud man today 😛

— Mayank Lodha (@bakarconsultant) January 15, 2020

@imVkohli spirit of the cricket ??????????

— Animesh Singh (@Ani18cric) January 15, 2020

Kane williamson deserves the spirit of cricket award,but everyone know ICC stand for Indian cricket Board,so how can they give this award to a non Indian.

— Rizwan ktk (@Iamrizwanktk) January 15, 2020

Kohli winning spirit of cricket is like mia khalifa winning virgin of the year award ?

— Meet In The Stands (@MeetInTheStands) January 15, 2020