Virat Kohli missed out the final nominations list for ICC ODI Player of the Year as his Pakistani rival Babar Azam won the award again.
As ICC announced the annual cricketing awards for 2022, Indian batting ace Virat Kohli found himself on the wrong side of jokes by fans from across the border. Kohli’ arch-nemesis Babar Azam won a second consecutive ICC ODI Player of the Year award while the RCB star missed out the final nominations list. However, a Twitter trend erupted soon on Thursday with Pakistani users suggesting that ICC should confer Kohli with at least one award: the Umpire of the Year.
The trend is from dubious claims that the India star influenced umpiring decisions during the memorable India vs Pakistan match at the T20I World Cup 2022. Kohli had played a memorable knock to guide India home against arch-rivals from an impossible situation. However, several Pakistani fans took to Twitter to suggest that ICC had made the wrong decision and should have awarded the Umpire of the Year award to Kohli.
“ICC has chosen Richard Illingworth as the "Umpire of the Year". I condemned this as Kohli is deprived of the Award,” wrote one Twitter user.
“Real ICC Umpire of the Year. At least King Virat Kohli have won the Award,” wrote another with smiling emojis.
“It's cheating. Kohli should win this award. Kohli is the Umpire of the year 2022,” said a third. “Virat Kohli got robbed he definitely deserved umpire of the year award,” one more fan said.
Several other tweets also surfaced on the same lines, as trend of ‘Virat Kohli Umpire of the Year’ erupted on Twitter.
Former English cricketer and current umpire Richard Illingworth won the ICC David Shepherd Trophy 2022, which is given to the Umpire of the Year. Illingworth had won the award back in 2019 too.
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 "‘Umpire of the Year': Pakistan fans troll Virat Kohli as ICC announces annual cricket awards")
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