Indian Captain Virat Kohli won International Cricket Council’s 2019 Spirit of Cricket Award on Wednesday for his gesture of stopping fans from booing Australian-run machine Steve Smith during the World Cup match in England last year.
A section of the Indian crowd was booing Smith who was fielding near the boundary. They started shouting “cheater-cheater”, but such conduct to a fellow athlete annoyed Kohli who gestured to the crowd to instead cheer for Smith.
According to the reports, Kohli even apologised to Smith on behalf of the Indian fans.
After winning the award, Kohli said the situation was about understanding an individual situation.
“I believe that intimidating your opponent and getting an upper hand is fine but it should be done in an appropriate manner. But targeting someone emotionally is not at all acceptable at any level,” Kohli said.
The Indian fans were booing Smith over his involvement in a ball-tampering incident during a test match in South Africa in 2018. He had to serve a year-long ban and make his international comeback during the 2019 World Cup.