"Approached To Put My Name In Auction": Why Kohli Chose Loyalty Over Money

For 17 years, Virat Kohli’s name has been synonymous with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The 34-year-old had joined the franchise as an 18-year-old ahead of the inaugural edition of IPL in 2008. Since then, the RCB icon has been true and loyal to the franchise despite the Bengaluru-based franchise yet to win an IPL title. In fact, even in the ongoing season, Kohli tops the scoring charts of IPL 2024, but RCB occupy the bottom spot in the points table. However, Kohli continues to give his all for the franchise despite setbacks over the years.

A couple of years back, Kohli had explained what RCB means to him and why he has not joined any other team despite getting lucrative offers.

“Virat I know you love RCB just as much as RCB loves you. Even for a moment, for a second, while playing this IPL, have you ever wondered is the grass greener on the other side?,” Kohli was asked on a video uploaded on RCB’s YouTube channel.

Kohli shed light on why his loyalty towards RCB is bigger than winning an IPL trophy.

“To be very honest I have thought about it, yes I won’t shy away from it and I’ve been approached many times as well to come into the auction somehow, put my name in there and stuff. And then I thought about it I was like at the end of the day everyone has X number of years they live right and then you die and then life moves on. And there would have been many great people who want trophies and this that blah blah blah but no one addresses you in the room like “Oh he’s an IPL champion” or “he’s a World Cup champion,” Kohli had revealed.

In simple words of Virat Kohli, Loyalty matters the most to me !! pic.twitter.com/0tpr4aA6Pk

— Priyam ~ kohli is god (@priyam1_raj) November 24, 2023

“And it’s like if you’re a good person, people like you and if you’re a bad guy, they stay away from you and eventually that’s what life is all about so for me the understanding that the loyalty with RCB is like how I follow my life is far greater for me than the fact that yes five people in the room would say, ‘Oh finally you’ve won the IPL with whoever XYZ and yeah you feel good for five minutes but then the sixth minute you could be miserable with some other issue in life, so it is not the end of the world for me’,” he explained.

Kohli also recalled his initial days of struggles at the franchise and how RCB backed him in those tough times

“What this franchise (RCB) has given me in terms of opportunity in the first three years and believed in me, that is the most special thing because as I said there were many teams who had the opportunity but they didn’t back me, they didn’t believe in me so now when I’m successful and I should fall to the opinion of people saying “but the IPL. This was the case with me till 2018 England tour happened. For four years of my life I was doing well everywhere in the world, the only thing was but “England”. So there’s always going to be buts, you literally can’t live your life like that and I just carry on my own thing and I actually honestly don’t even bother about a third person beyond myself, Anushka discussing things and just being true to ourselves. And that’s it for me, nothing else and no one else’s opinion matters at all,” Kohli went on to add.