Virat Kohli returns to Vijay Hazare Trophy: King’s tryst with silence and chaos
Bengaluru (PTI): Virat Kohli’s 58th List A hundred resembled a grand opera played inside an empty Royal Albert Hall.
Kohli’s 83-ball knock for Delhi against Andhra in the Vijay Hazare Trophy was magnificent as usual in its execution, but there were no screaming spectators to garnish the occasion here at the BCCI Centre of Excellence.
The Karnataka government’s reticence to grant permission to host matches at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium citing security reasons forced the KSCA to shift matches to CoE, and the venue was out of bounds for fans.
ALSO READ: Kohli goes past Tendulkar to become fastest to 16000 List A runs
So, instead of a roaring house, a tranche of snail-paced cargo trucks, a large posse of police personnel and few fans gawking over the barbed concrete walls provided an austere setting for Kohli’s return to Vijay Hazare Trophy after 15 years.
Kohli himself might have found it a tad bizarre. For a better part of the last decade and half, the 37-year-old has always walked onto a cricket field to an uproarious welcome.
Even his return to Ranji Trophy earlier this year after a hiatus of 12 years at Ferozeshah Kotla had drawn huge crowds.
But on a sunny Wednesday, Kohli made a rather unfamiliar, lonely walk to the middle — no cheers, no chants of "Kohli... Kohli!" and not even that ubiquitous RCB cries that reverberate around stadiums irrespective of the formats he plays.
The thick veil of silence was breached only when the fielding side players chatted among themselves or when occasional applause emanated from the respective dressing rooms.
But the entire sight had its own charm. A champion cricketer who has always been flanked on either side by fame and fans, was now doing it all alone.
There were short chats and high-fives with teammates, a diving stop to deny Ricky Bhui another boundary, and a quick word of advice to Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini when Andhra batters carted him around.
Kohli even jived to some imaginary tune. Perhaps, an effort to recreate an air of exuberance and theatre around him, something he loves to do so dearly on a cricket field.
He was trying to flame the dramatist inside him, which often drove him to some dizzying peaks.
Kohli the master batter
But that situational solitude did not affect his batting. Barring a couple of drops, Kohli slipped into his familiar ‘Chase Master’ garb with ease.
His money shots were on full view on Wednesday — pulls, charge to spinners, flicks, cuts and those beautiful perpendicular bat straight drives.
Fifty came in 39 balls and 100 in 83 balls, but none of those moments were celebrated with usual gusto. But a simple wave to the dressing room marked the occasion.
In fact, silence shrouded those moments so deep that a blink could have made one miss them.
But there was another side to it. Perhaps, Kohli too might have enjoyed that slice of loneliness which he often craves for.
That search for privacy has made him set an alternate base in London apart from his uber posh Mumbai dwelling. Here, he had all the desired isolation.
But the day ended in familiar chaos. Andhra cricketers and officials mobbed him for photographs and autographs, and he obliged with a smile.
“It was a dream to play in the same match as Kohli. I always wanted to play with or in the opposition (of Kohli), and the all the Andhra cricketers were elated at the opportunity,” said fellow centurion Ricky Bhui after the match.
As boxing legend Frank Bruno once said: ‘Boy! That’s cricket.”
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Constitution amendment bill defeat was BJP’s first embarrassment in Parliament: Margaret Alva
Bengaluru (PTI): Senior Congress leader Margaret Alva on Monday said that the constitution amendment bill's defeat in the Lok Sabha on April 17 was the first embarrassment faced by the BJP-led government in Parliament.
She also alleged that the BJP has no real concern regarding women’s reservation.
The opposition INDIA bloc defeated the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill that sought to facilitate the implementation of women's reservation by expanding the strength of the Lok Sabha, apart from making changes to delimitation.
"This is the first embarrassment and defeat faced by the NDA government in the Lok Sabha," the former Governor of Gujarat and Rajasthan said in a press conference here.
According to her, the women’s reservation has been under discussion since the time of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
"During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, a 14-member committee was formed, and I was appointed as its chairperson. We prepared a report after studying what needed to be done to enhance the dignity of women across 12 sectors. This was submitted to the government in 1989,” Alva, 84-year-old veteran Congress leader, said.
She said political empowerment for women was emphasised in that report, without which, empowerment in any other sphere is not possible.
“Many people in Parliament used to question me — should we vacate seats for women and stay at home cooking? Why insist on this? Has anyone written these seats in your name? This debate has been ongoing since 1975,” Alva explained.
The Congress leader said Rajiv Gandhi had introduced 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies.
“At that time, all opposition parties united and defeated the Bill,” she pointed out.
Again, during the tenure of former Prime Minister late P V Narasimha Rao, the 33 per cent reservation Bill in local bodies was passed.
“It was the Congress party that first introduced women’s reservation. Now they are falsely accusing us of being anti-women,” Alva charged.
In 2023, the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed with much fanfare, but it was not immediately implemented.
According to her, a condition was imposed for its implementation that it would be enforced based on census data.
"Once it is in the statute book, what is preventing its implementation? Two years for the census and another two years for delimitation — this means it cannot be implemented by 2029. It was not given in 2024, and there is no possibility even in 2029," Alva charged the BJP-led government at the Centre.
The Congress leader said the BJP is saying that the Bill can be implemented based on the 2011 Census, but when the same suggestion was made in 2023, the BJP rejected it.
On increasing the Lok Sabha seats by 50 per cent, she sought to know the basis for it.
“Where did this (idea) come from? Whose advice was taken? Was it decided by the RSS? Or ordered by a court?” Alva asked.
The former union minister said the Constitution amendment bill, which was defeated on April 17 appears to favour certain North Indian states.
“We pay taxes, but they receive greater benefits and allocations. If seats are increased by 50 per cent based on their calculations, we would get only 14 additional seats, while they would get 40. How is this fair?” she questioned.
While 298 members voted in support of the bill in Lok Sabha, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-third majority.
According to the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to "operationalise" the women's reservation act before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats were also to be increased in state and Union territory Assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
