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When Virat Kohli's father refused to give bribe for his son's selection to Delhi junior team

Virat Kohli's father did not pay bribe for his son to get selected to the Delhi junior team and Kohli says the incident had a big impact on him.

Virat Kohlis father did not pay bribe for his son to get selected to the Delhi junior team and Kohli says the incident had a big impact on him.

Bengaluru, May 19: Virat Kohli is now considered the best contemporary batsman and he leads Indian cricket team too in all three formats too. Can you imagine someone as talented and as hard working Kohli failed to get selected for a junior team and that too of his home side - Delhi.

Kohli had to go through the trauma as a youngster when he was not picked for a Delhi junior side and that was none of his fault too. His father, who worked as a lawyer, did not pay bribe for Kohli to get selection to the team. Kohli detailed the incident in a chat with Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri.

"In my home state (Delhi)... sometimes things happen that are not fair... On one occasion, a certain someone did not play by the rules when it came to selection criteria. He told my father while I had the merit, a little extra (bribe) was needed to confirm my selection," he said.

"My father - an honest middle-class man who had worked hard all his life to become a successful lawyer - did not even understand what that 'little extra' meant. My father simply said, 'If you want to select Virat, then let it be purely on merit. I will give you nothing extra'," Kohli said. "I didn't get selected. I cried a lot. I was broken," he said.

Kohli said the whole episode had a big impact on him. "That incident taught me a lot. I realised that this world runs like this. If you want to progress, do something that no one else is doing. If I had to become successful, I had to be extraordinary.

"And I had to achieve this purely through my own effort and hard work. My father showed me the right way, through his actions and not merely words. Those little things had a great impact on me."

Kohli's father passed away when the ace batsman was just 18, and that too when he was playing a Ranji Trophy match for Delhi against Karnataka. But Kohli ate the grief and played a match-saving innings for his state.

"I accepted his death, as I was focused on moving forward with my career. In fact, I went and batted in a Ranji Trophy match the day after he died. His death made me realise that I had to make something of my life. Now, I think about how nice it would be if I could have given my father the peaceful retired life that he deserved," he added.

Story first published: Tuesday, May 19, 2020, 10:10 [IST]
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