The premier Pakistan pacer, Mohammad Amir showered praise for the Indian skipper Virat Kohli as a great player after the latter won the ICC’s Spirit of Cricket Award. Virat was given the special recognition at the annual ICC awards for his heartwarming gesture towards Australia’s premier batsman, Steve Smith during ICC World Cup 2019.
When the crowd at the Oval was booing and jeering Smith for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal, Kohli asked the crowd to rather appreciate the cricketer. The award can be termed as teh best testimony of a tremendous change in Kohli’s attitude.
From once stopping short of calling Smith a cheat during the infamous brain-fade saga in 2017 to showing the middle-finger to the crowd in Australia, Virat was often been termed as the bad boy of cricket in the early years of his career. But just like his batting, he transformed his attitude too and deservedly walked away with the Spirit of Cricket award.
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And as Kohli was winning praise from all over, Amir also joined the bandwagon. Calling Kohli great, Amir tweeted: “Great words from great player.”
Great words from great player
— Mohammad Amir (@iamamirofficial) January 15, 2020
Kohli winning the ICC Spirit of Cricket award surprised not only the fans but the India skipper as well. In his acceptance speech, Kohli said that he was surprised to receive the reward as he has often been under the scanner for wrong things for so many years. He further opened up on the incident at the World Cup that won him the award.
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Virat further explained, “I’m surprised that I have got it, after many years of being under the scanner for the wrong things. 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 for that. Intimidate the opposition, definitely try and have an upper hand but in a matter that is not targeting someone emotionally.”
