File photo of Virat Kohli (left) and Glenn Maxwell.© BCCI
Cricket in India is a religion and top cricketers are celebrated more than anyone in this country. Virat Kohli is one of the Indian cricket icons who have a huge fan-following. The fans at times even cross certain boundaries to meet or even get a glimpse of the superstar. However, this is just one side of the story. How does it make Kohli or other such stars feel? Australia star and former Royal Challengers Benguluru player Glenn Maxwell has shared a glimpse of how it is for players like Kohli to face such fans.
Maxwell recalled an incident in which he and Kohli were hounded by fans when the duo was moving towards the RCB team hotel while returning from practice. Maxwell revealed that the group of Kohli fans, after spotting the Indian star, went so crazy to get his attention that they made the situation really tough for him.
“We had a training session where me and him went reasonably early to training, got all our stuff done. I think it was an optional session, so we batted together, batted for a while, finished up and said, ‘Oh we can get a car back to the hotel.’ We jumped in a car and immediately alarm bells were going off in my head that this is probably not a good idea. We had security in the front seat of the car and a car behind us full of police,” Maxwell told LISTNR’s podcast.
“As we were driving out of Chinnaswamy Stadium, people noticed that Virat is in the car and just started punching on the windows, like beating up his car. They were trying to get his attention and get him to look at them. I was surprised the car didn’t have dents all over it. This was so uncomfortable. I was just looking at him and I was like, ‘How do you deal with this on a day-to-day basis and he sort of shrugged off like it’s what I go through. It’s a scary way for him to live,” he added.
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