Commercial aspect of cricket hurting its real quality, says upset Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli in an interview recently has expressed how demanding it gets when there is a lot of cricket to be played regularly and which is why he said he cannot think of one more format being added to professional cricket.

He said that statement in reference to the England Cricket Board-proposed 100-ball format.

“Obviously for the people involved in the whole process and the set-up it will be really exciting but I cannot think of one more format, to be honest,” said Kohli in an exclusive interview to Wisden. “I’m already very… I wouldn’t say frustrated, but sometimes it can get very demanding of you when you have to play so much cricket regularly. I feel somewhere the commercial aspect is taking over the real quality of cricket and that hurts me.

“Honestly, I don’t want to be a testing sort of a cricketer for any new format. I don’t want to be someone who’s going to be part of that World XI who comes and launches the 100-ball format. I love playing the IPL, I love watching the BBL, because you’re working towards something, competing against high-quality sides and it gets your competitive juices flowing. That’s what you want as a cricketer. I’m all for the leagues, but not to experiment,” he added.

The Indian skipper making himself clear about England and the board he said that he has always loved following County Cricket. He even was going to play for Surrey earlier this year but due to an injury, he couldn’t.

“County cricket always intrigued me.  I’ve heard so much from so many players over so many years that it has really helped them understand their games even better. Someone like Zaheer Khan, his bowling was totally transformed after his stint,” he said.

Kohli and the Indian team right now are in England playing the five-Test series against the hosts. After three Tests, England are 2-1 up and the fourth Test is due to begin on Thursday at Southampton.