Virat Kohli Melbourne Airport Spat: Star India Batter Losing Focus as Family Pictures Will Be Clicked

Virat Kohli is in the news again, this time over a purported scrap with a mediaperson at the Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne on Friday. The Indian team landed in Melbourne for the fourth Test of the BGT Series starting on December 26, Boxing Day.

As it is, Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma are under the glare after R.Ashwin walked out of Australia after announcing his retirement. It has set the cat among the pigeons with Ashwin's father now saying his son could not take the 'humiliation' any longer, in Chennai.

This is not the first time Kohli, now travelling with his superstar wife and well-known Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma, have got into a scrap with people filming or clicking photos. Is there a privacy law for children not to be photographed as a normal tourist in Australia? The answer is a 'no.'

Kohli is famous in Australia, people love him. At the same time, for the sake of their own cricket and hyping up the rivalry further in the BGT Series, tantalisingly poised at 1-1, with two more Tests to go, they will do anything to rile the Indians. And this is where Kohli has played into their hands, just like the outside the off-stump trap which consumes him.

If Kohli cannot do a 'well-left' in the 22 yards battle as a batter, he has to do it now with the media. In the good old days, the BCCI would not even allow cricketers to travel with their wives.

A lot has changed from the BCCI and now they feel the family travelling with the cricketer puts him in good space in the mind. If such adjustment has been made, Kohli needs to move on. He cannot stop people from clicking his kids.

Both Mr and Mrs Kohli know the price for being a celebrity and the hazards of popularity. By and large, clicking photos in airports permissible, unless it is a restricted zone. This incident was not, so TV channels in Australia have now taken a huge swipe at Virat Kohli.

If this is going to disturb him ahead of the fourth Test, he should make arrangements for his children and wife to travel separately. That is a good way to avoid media glare.

On Thursday, it was interesting to read Virat Kohli's childhood coach, Raj Kumar Sharma tell a newspaper in an interview, the star cricketer and family would migrate to London. Was Sharma passing on information or acting as a PR agent?

Everyone knows Kohli spends most of his time in London after his second child was born there earlier this year. First up, in Britian, Paparazzzi, as the 'shutter-bug' media is referred to will do anything to click photos if it will sell.

Kohli is not their main celebrity, British Paparazzi will chase footballers, tennis players. In case people have forgotten, clicking the most skimpily dressed Anna Kournkiova daily in Britain before and during the Wimbledon fortnight was a must for the photographers in London. Or, even when she lost early at Wimbledon, they would chase her to other destinations in Europe.

Kohli can lead a life of anonymity in London and Australia as well. He will not be there as an Indian cricketer forever, though Raj Kumar Sharma says he continue till the 2027 World Cup. If that's fantasy, so be it. Kohli needs to know, in Britain, his chosen home away from home, camerapersons are notorious.

Footballers who get drunk and sloshed in pubs and then brawl are pictured. British Tabloids are creative will use it with the most creative headlines and captions. Ask Gazza (Paul Gascoigne) and a few more English footballers!

The British Royalty has faced constant surveillance or harassment from the media. How Princess Diana was chased to death io 1997 is a well-known story. She was (in)famous but each shot of hers was worth many British Pound Sterling.

And once she started dating Dodi Fayed, she was chased even more. Her car crash and death are proof how she was being chased by photographers on a bike. The rest is history. More recently, Prince Harry and Meghan are also victims of Paparazzi. The duo has chosen to move to the USA, but still face Paparazzi.

Virat Kohli is a star cricketer but in front of these famous names like Diana her son Harry and football stars-turned- lager-louts, he is nothing. He cannot stop press or casual people from clicking his photos or his kids. If he is going to preach privacy, he should ensure he can protect them. Do not Bollywood stars get clicked every second from a film release to even a funeral?