London: India captain Virat Kohli has broken silence over his ugly gesture towards the Australian fans at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in 2012.
During the Sydney Test, Kohli had got into trouble after showing his middle finger to the crowd while fielding near the boundary.
Now, after six years, he has spoken about that and said he regrets having done that. He also revealed that he pleaded with the match referee not to ban him.
“The match referee (Ranjan Madugalle) called me to his room the next day and I’m like, ‘what’s wrong?’,” Kohli told Wisden in an interview.
“He said, ‘what happened at the boundary yesterday?’. I said, ‘nothing, it was a bit of banter.’ Then he threw the newspaper in front of me and there was this big image of me flicking on the front page and I said, ‘I’m so sorry, please don’t ban me!,” he added.
Kohli, who is now in England, described Madugalle as a “nice guy” and hence he escaped a ban. However, he was fined 50% of his match fee.
“I got away with that one. He was a nice guy, he understood I was young and these things happen. I really laugh at a lot of the things I did when I was younger but I’m proud that I did not change my ways because I was always going to be who I am and not change for the world or anyone else. I was pretty happy with who I was," he said.