The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on sporting tournaments. With sporting events canceled or postponed to avoid mass gathering of crowds, many people want to have the tournaments played behind closed doors. Virat Kohli feels cricket will likely resume in empty stadiums. The Indian captain has also expressed doubts over “one will feel that magic happening inside” without any crowd support.
Virat Kohli expects the matches to “play at a very good intensity”. However, he feels it will be difficult to create “those magical moments” without any crowd behind the team.
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Speaking on Star Sports’ show ‘Cricket Connected’, Virat Kohli said, “I honestly don’t know how everyone is going to take that because we are used to playing in front of so many passionate fans. I know it will be played at a very good intensity. But that feeling of the crowd connecting with the players and the tension of the game where everyone goes through it in the stadium, those emotions are very difficult to recreate.”
“So, things will still go on, but I doubt that one will feel something magical happening inside because of the atmosphere that was created. You will just play the sport how it is supposed to be played. But those magical moments will be difficult to come by,” added the India skipper added.
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Earlier, Nathan Lyon commented on how the Indian skipper would react to playing behind closed doors. The Australian spinner said, “He’s probably good enough to adapt to any scenario. But I was talking to Mitch Starc the other day. We actually said it’ll be quite amazing to see Virat trying to rev up the seats. It’s going to be a little bit different, but Virat is a superstar. He’ll be able to adapt to any climate that we’re able to play in.”