Watch: Virat Kohli Says His Father Refused To Bribe Cricket Official For His Selection

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Virat Kohli recalled an incident when his father refused to bribe an official which led to him not getting selected in the team despite fulfilling all the merit criteria.

"He is the guy who studied under the streetlights, those were the circumstances at his home. From there he worked hard to become a lawyer, worked in the merchant navy as well before that. One who has worked hard doesn't understand that language. He didn't understand what was going on," Kohli said, explaining his father's hardships.

The Indian skipper said his father never believed in taking shortcuts to attain success and always taught him to have faith in hard work.

"He said to my coach, 'if he (Virat) can play on his merit, then fine else we do not want to play him. I won't do all this'.

"And I was not selected and I cried a lot, I was broken," Kohli explained what his father told his coach after he was asked to pay bribe for his selection.

Explaining what he learnt from this experience, Kohli said: "But that taught me something that this is how the world is run. If you want to progress do something that no one else is doing. That lesson he gave me because you can only rely on your hard work and that I saw from my father who made a living, made a life for himself, and gave me the right teachings by actions."

The Indian skipper lost his father in the middle of a Ranji Trophy match when he was playing for Delhi against Karnataka, at the age of 18.

However, the young Kohli, who saw his father breath his last in the night, went to the ground the next morning and played a valuable knock to save the game for Delhi.