Virat Kohli's is a story that will inspire budding sportspersons for generations to come. The current Indian captain, and arguably the finest batsman in world cricket, defied all odds in his life to emerge a true champion.
It's common knowledge that Kohli won hearts for his courageous effort to take the field soon after his father's death during the start of his career. The right-handed batsman was in the middle of a Ranji Trophy match for Delhi in December 2006, when his father passed away.
In that match, Kohli was batting on 40 overnight against Karnataka when his father passed away. Despite many believing he wouldn't turn up for the rest of the match, the then 18-year-old came to the ground the next day and score 90 runs. His heroic knock helped his team Delhi to avoid a follow-on. Although he has never spoken in depth about what he went through at that time, Kohli has finally shed light on the horrors he'd faced.
"It happened in my arms. It was 3 in the morning, and I was batting overnight. I was 40 not out, and I had to go in the morning and bat the next day because it was a four-day Ranji Trophy cricket. We just couldn't get help. We tried to get help from the neighbours, whoever we knew was a doctor. It was such a time of the night that no one responded. By the time ambulance and everything came, everything was already gone," Kohli was quoted as saying in a soon-to-be-aired television documentary on National Geographic.
"I think I became much more focussed after that [father's death]. I lost total desire of wanting to do the other stuff and put all my energy into realizing my dream and my father's dream as well," he added said.
Kohli recently became the third Indian cricketer in history, after Sachin Tendulkar (1997-98) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2007), to be bestowed with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. The awards ceremony will be held in New Delhi on Tuesday, September 25.
