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‘Ya Dil Maange More’ and for cricketers, this is a perennial problem. The list of endless demands. My bat, my car, my house, my tickets, my endorsements – it is more ‘my’ than ‘us’. Reminds us of that Shahrukh Khan movie song: “Koi hero yahan, koi zero yahan, koi star hai. Koi bekaar hai, Main kaun hoon tumse main kya kahoon, Hai sach toh yeh doston, I am the best, I am the best, I am the best, You are the best.”
So, everyone is the best and wants the best – Rinku is no different. Recently, a video of Virat Kohli and Rinku Singh went viral discussing cricket bats. Quite a dramatic scene from a reality show called IPL.
Rinku Singh approaches Virat Kohli with a long face right outside the fencing of the RCB dressing room and says: “I broke my bat while playing against a spinner.” A surprised Kohli, who could be India’s new T20 opening pair alongwith Rohit in the T20 World Cup, looks at Rinku and says: “You have broken my bat to a spinner.”
The funda is quite clear, if Kohli bats at No.3, Rinku can’t be in the playing XI. Looking at the current form of Rinku, some may even say that Shivam Dube is a better option. But as the selectors are busy debating that, Rinku has a fan-boy moment with King Kohli, which not many would expect from an emerging star.
The scene goes like this: Virat’s bat given to Rinku Singh as a gift is broken and from where? “From the bottom,” Rinku says to attract sympathy and gets a shocker of reply when Kohli says what can he do and thanks him in the same breath for passing on the information. Rinku then grabs two of Kohli’s bats to check the pink of the bat, which sounds awesome, but Kohli plays it smart to ensure those two bats are not taken. “Useless bat hai,” Kohli says.
“Where are you sending it back?” asked Rinku after gauging that there isn’t any chance of seeing the generous side of Kohli at that moment, he returned the bats to him by saying: “Take it back.’mBy this time, Kohli knew Rinku’s intention as he was bargaining for more bats from him after breaking one. To protect his interest further, Kohli also admits in the video that he was in bad shape because of Rinku: “I gave you my bat one match ago and now I can’t lose two bats in two matches.”Almost embarrassed, Rinku insists: I won’t break your bat again. I swear on you I won’t break your bat again. I will show you the broken bat.” Kohli just walks away as the scene ends.
This private conversation between Kohli and Rinku, which was filmed at the Eden Gardens and shared on social media, doesn’t show Rinku in a good light. It is okay to admire a big star, but going on insisting for a bat and making it appear as if Rinku doesn’t get good bats is something really degrading for an upcoming star.
One is not sure of the purpose of the video and one hopes that it was just done in jest. Otherwise, it does degrade an upcoming player.
Not that it is morally wrong to ask a superstar to share his kit and use it as a memento but the manner of it is important. Right postering is important. No one is stopping a Rinku kind of a player from expressing his strong desire to play with Kohli’s bat, but it should be done with dignity not by pleading.
I perused through the article now and picked up a lot of points. You have made correct observations about treating senior and August players with utmost respect. Hats off to your knowledge and how you weave ideas together .