Virat Kohli Loves Confrontations And Viv Richards Doesn't Mind

Virat Kohli did not spare the Australian cricketers and had a go at them time and again in the just-concluded Perth Test, giving as good as he got. Barring his century in the first innings of the match, Kohli made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. He was involved in verbal spat with rival skipper Tim Paine to an extent that the on-field umpire had to intervene into the matter. However, cricket legend Viv Richards, in an interview to a cricket website, reckoned saying things that upset the opposition was part of sport. The former Windies captain also said that he thought Virat Kohli was the kind of player who likes to be in confrontations.

"When you say the wrong things, that's not good. There are times when you say things to upset the opposition, which is part of sport. But when you start getting personal, it's never good," Viv Richards told Cricbuzz.

"I don't know about sledging, but I love confrontation. And Virat looks like he loves to be in a confrontation," the 66-year-old added.

Among other incidents that happened involving Kohli, Paine was caught on stump mic, telling Murali Vijay that couldn't possibly like his skipper as a person.

"I know he's your captain but you can't seriously like him as a bloke," the stump mic caught Paine as telling Vijay.

The Kohli-Paine war of words began on Day 3 when the Indian skipper took a jibe at his Australia counterpart.

The incident happened after the visitors went for a huge caught-behind appeal in the final over of the day.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Australia vs India 2018/19 Virat Kohli Tim Paine Cricket