I don't want to go to room, sit alone and sulk: Kohli bats for family on tours
Bengaluru (PTI): Star batter Virat Kohli supported the presence of players' families on tours, saying he would always prefer having personal support around him to deal with tough and intense days on the field, instead of sulking alone in his hotel room.
A BCCI directive which was issued after India's 1-3 Test series defeat against Australia had curtailed the family time of players for no longer than 14 days on tours exceeding 45 days.
The wife, children or girlfriends of players could be with them for a maximum of one week on shorter tours.
Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami had their families in Dubai during the recently-concluded Champions Trophy but they did not stay at the team hotel. The expense of the families' stay was borne by the players and not the BCCI.
"The role of family is very difficult to explain to people…how grounding it is to just come back to your family every time you have something which is intense, which happens on the outside," said Kohli during RCB’s Innovation Lab summit which concluded here on Saturday.
"I don't think people have an understanding of what value it brings."
Kohli said having the family around would help a player to recover from on-field disappointments that much quicker.
"I don't want to go to my room and just sit alone and sulk. I want to be able to be normal. Then you can really treat your game as something that is a responsibility.
"Not in a vague sense, but in a very real way that you finish your commitment and then you come back to your house, you're with family, and absolutely normalcy in your house and normal family life goes on.
"So, for me, that is absolutely a day of immense pleasure. I won't miss any opportunities to go out and spend time with my family whenever I can,” said Kohli.
The 36-year-old was "disappointed" because people with no real connection with such issues have been involved in such discussions.
"I feel quite disappointed about that because it's like people who have no control over what's going on are brought into conversations and put out at the forefront of that — 'oh, maybe they need to be kept away'.
"And if you ask any player, do you want your family to be around you all the time? You'll be like, yes," he said.
Kohli, one of the fittest cricketers around, said it was tough to convince his mother about his fitness regime, highlighting his strong bond with the family.
"Support system (for fitness) from the team's point of view wasn't tough. Convincing my mom what I was doing was way harder. She was very disappointed in the fact that I wasn't eating any parathas and I was looking weak on the field.
"And I was like, you know what, there are people who are playing in other countries asking me how I'm training. And how I'm very fit now. And you're telling me I'm looking weak. So I had to convince her that everything's fine, I'm not sick, don't worry. That was way harder," he added.
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Rupee declines 27 paise to 90.95 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 27 paise to 90.95 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday, weighed down by a strong American currency and higher crude oil prices due to the escalated geopolitical tension.
A selling rush in domestic equities further pressured the Indian currency, forex traders said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 90.94 and slipped further to trade at 90.95 against the greenback in early deals, losing 27 paise from its previous closing level.
The rupee rose 4 paise to settle at 90.68 against the US dollar on Wednesday. The currency exchange markets were closed on Thursday on account of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Jayanti.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.04 per cent higher at 97.89.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.14 per cent higher at USD 71.77 per barrel in futures trade.
Analysts attributed the strengthening dollar and crude prices to heightened tension between the US and Iran, with both countries signalling they are prepared for war if talks on Tehran's nuclear programme fizzle out.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex fell 150.35 points to 82,347.79 in early trade while the Nifty declined 35.15 points to 25,419.20.
On Thursday, foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 880.49 crore, according to exchange data.
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