On the eve of India's second T20 World Cup match against New Zealand, skipper Virat Kohli lambasted the social media trolls for abusing pacer Mohammad Shami, terming them as “spineless people” who have no idea what it takes to play at the highest level.
Shami was subjected to online abuse after India’s 10-wicket defeat at the hands of Pakistan in their opening Super 12 encounter last Sunday (October 24).
"To me attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing a human being can do. Everyone has the right to voice their opinion but I personally have never even thought of discriminating someone over their religion,” Kohli said while addressing the pre-match press conference in Dubai on October 30
"This is literally the lowest potential as a human being one can operate at. There's a reason we are playing on the field and not those spineless people. It is so unfortunate and sad to see people getting entertained.
"We are doing what we are doing on the field and none of these people (social media trolls) are even in the vicinity to even imagine doing something like that. They do not have the courage or the spine to do that. That is how I see things,” he added.
The Indian captain also stood in solidarity with Shami, saying that their brotherhood cannot be shaken.
"They have no understanding of the fact that Mohammad Shami has won India a number of matches...If people can overlook that and his passion for the country, I honestly don't want to waste even 1 min of my life on them. We stand by him 200%. Our brotherhood cannot be shaken."
Kohli further said his team doesn’t pay heed to the outside noise and focuses on doing the job.
“As a group, we understand how we need to stick together and how we need to back individuals and how need to focus on our strengths and whether people on the outside portray the fact that India cannot afford to lose a game of cricket is none of our business because we play sport and we understand how sport goes. So, how people think on the outside adds no value whatsoever. We never focussed on it and we will never focus on it going forward either.
"Like I said last time, people do not understand what it takes to do the job on the field at the international level and we are not going to go around and announce to everyone what we do and how we do it. We are just supposed to carry on and if a game goes off, you take the learning from it and you move forward. Not one game is more than the other. Every game of cricket is important and so is the case in the next game as well," he concluded.
(Inputs from Hindustan Times)
