Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli has been announced as the recipient of the prestigious ‘Spirit of Cricket’ award by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Virat Kohli bags ‘Spirit of Cricket’ Award
‘Man of the Match,’ ‘Man of the Series,’ ‘Cricketer of the Year’ and ‘Cricketer of the Decade’ are among some of the countless awards Virat Kohli boasts of, but here’s a special honor he’d cherish for a long time.
The ICC Awards recently revealed the winners for 2019 and Kohli won the title for his sportsmanship during a group stage match between India and Australia, asking raged cricket fans to applaud for Steve Smith and his team instead of chanting “Cheater Cheater,” in the aftermath of the sandpaper incident in 2018. Check out the incident:
“I’m surprised that I have got it, after many years of being under the scanner for the wrong things. It is part of the camaraderie that sportsmen must have with each other. That moment was purely understanding an individual’s situation. I don’t think a guy who is coming out of a situation like that needs to be taken advantage of. You can sledge, can have banter on the field, you say things to the opposition in wanting to beat them. But booing someone is not in the spirit of any sport, I don’t endorse it.”
Virat Kohli
Rohit Sharma and Deepak Chahar win big at the ICC Awards
It comes with no surprise that Rohit Sharma is the recipient of the ‘ODI Cricketer of the Year,’ scoring 1,409 runs in 28 matches at an average of 50.32, notably his five hundreds and a half-century during the ICC World Cup.
Deepak Chahar stormed men’s T20I records for the best bowling figures in history, taking six wickets for seven runs in 3.2 overs versus Bangladesh last November. The match helped him become a mainstay in India’s T20I squad, in the build-up to the World Cup in Australia this October.
Mayank Agarwal, Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadhav part of ICC teams
Meanwhile, the ICC also announced 2019’s ‘Test Team of the Year’ and ‘ODI Team of the Year.’ Skipper Kohli and Mayank Agarwal were selected in the squad for the longest format of the game, while Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadhav made it in the limited-overs squad.
Check out all the winners and squads from the ICC awards here.
