The former England bowler Monty Panesar reckons one of the reasons BCCI is not dropping Virat Kohli could be the fact that they are under heavy pressure from the sponsors to keep Virat playing so that the international games that India play get a lot of viewership.
Monty Panesar, while talking to Times of India, related Virat Kohli‘s situation to Cristiano Ronaldo’s situation at Manchester United saying when Ronaldo starts for the Red Devils, almost everyone tunes in to watch football, it doesn’t matter how good or bad Ronaldo is playing. Is it the same case with Kohli that if BCCI drops him, they can lose viewership and sponsorship money?
Virat Kohli is one of the most popular cricketers in the world and is loved by millions across India, but as seen in the Indian Premier League (IPL) every year, even the games which don’t feature Virat Kohli record a huge number of viewership.
The data suggests whether Virat is playing or not, the Indian fans watch cricket anyway and hence, Panesar’s remarks that BCCI might not be dropping Virat because of the pressure from the sponsors seems off the mark because of the popularity of the game itself in India, apart from the popularity of individual players.
BCCI has to make a decision on Virat: Monty Panesar
As far as Virat Kohli’s numbers are concerned, his consistency in ODI cricket hasn’t been poor, even though he hasn’t scored a hundred, but it’s his consistency in test cricket which is under the scanner. Also, the tempo at which Virat bats in T20 cricket has become a subject of much debate, with India starting to play a new brand of T20 cricket now.
According to Monty Panesar, BCCI has to make a decision on Virat’s form, but the decision has to be made keeping everything in mind and one of the factors in the decision-making might be the perspective of the sponsors.
