'Great player' - Mohammad Amir hails Virat Kohli for winning ICC Spirit of Cricket award

Pakistan fast-bowler Mohammad Amir has hailed India skipper Virat Kohli as a great player after the latter won the ICC’s Spirit of Cricket Award. Kohli was given the special recognition at the annual ICC awards for his heartwarming gesture towards Australia star Steve Smith at last year’s World Cup.

When the crowd at the Oval was booing and jeering Smith for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal, Kohli had come forward and asked the fans to stop and instead applaud the Australian.

The award is yet another proof of the remarkable turnaround in Kohli’s attitude. From once stopping short of calling Smith a cheat during the infamous brain-fade saga in 2017 to showing the middle-finger to crowd in Australia, Kohli was the bad boy in cricket in the early years of his career. But just like his batting, he transformed his attitude too and deservedly walked away with the Spirit of Cricket award.

And as Kohli was winning praise from all over, Mohammad Amir also joined the bandwagon. A few hours after ICC announced the awards, the Pakistan pacer took to Twitter to hail Kohli after listening to his comments. Calling Kohli great, Amir wrote: “Great words from great player.”

Great words from great player

— Mohammad Amir (@iamamirofficial) January 15, 2020

Virat Kohli was surprised too

Virat Kohli winning the ICC Spirit of Cricket award surprised not only the fans but the India skipper too. In his acceptance speech, Kohli said that he was surprised to receive the reward after being under the scanner for wrong things for so many years. He further opened up on the incident at the World Cup that won him the award.

“I’m surprised that I have got it, after many years of being under the scanner for the wrong things,” Kohli said in a statement issued by the ICC.

“That moment was purely understanding an individual’s situation. I don’t think a guy who is coming out of a situation like that needs to be taken advantage of. That should not be a representation of our fans and what we stand as a cricketing nation, a sporting nation.

“We need to all take responsibility towards that. Intimidate the opposition, definitely try and have an upper hand but in a matter that is not targeting someone emotionally. That is not acceptable at any level and people should be wary of that,” he added.

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