Has Virat Kohli emerged as a convenient scapegoat in the aftermath of the Chinnaswamy Stadium tragedy?

How quickly we turn on our heroes. How zealously we enjoy the process of putting them on a pedestal with painstaking determination, only to pull them down at the first hint of perceived apathy. Virat Kohli with the IPL trophy in front of fans at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday(PTI)

To say that Virat Kohli has the most frenzied, loyal fanbase across the cricketing world will be no exaggeration. India’s former captain is an unquestioned crowd-puller whose cricketing persona resonates with millions. He has carried the hopes and prayers and good wishes of large sections and seldom disappointed, producing one epic after another with staggering regularity.

A maiden IPL title, on his 18th attempt with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, ought to have been the icing on the cake. Apart from the World Test Championship trophy which will now never be his, the only glaring absence from his brimful cupboard of silverware was the symbol of supremacy in the IPL. That anomaly was corrected four nights back in Ahmedabad; Kohli himself, as one would expect, was the engine room that drove the RCB charge, finishing the tournament as the third highest run-getter while making those runs with flair and panache and a healthy strike-rate that hadn’t always been his staunchest ally.

RCB’s six-run defeat of Punjab Kings on Tuesday night sent RCBians worldwide into the throes of ecstasy. Impromptu street parties broke out in Bengaluru and ran well into the early hours of Wednesday. Kohli was the toast, understandably; single-handedly for 17 years, he had ensured that the fan base grew in inverse proportion to RCB’s on-field accomplishments. There was a sense of vindication, for him, and his and RCB’s passionate supporters, when the tape was breasted at long last.

Now, Kohli is the object of much scorn and vile abuse on social media, primarily. The social media space is increasingly becoming caustic and nasty, its relative anonymity encouraging keyboard warriors to spew venom without the fear of reprisals and recrimination. In the aftermath of the horrific tragedy outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday evening that swiftly devolved from celebratory to mournful, Kohli has been slammed in certain quarters for not being sensitive enough to the developments outside the venue and for continuing with the celebrations on the outfield of RCB’s home base.

Different people react differently to catastrophes, there is no template and no one has the right to expect anyone else to behave in the manner in which we want them to. Having oneself been caught bang in the middle of much of the jostling and shoving outside the venue as early as 3 pm, one can say with some confidence that no one who didn’t experience that – and we truly are grateful that so many did not – cannot really fathom the rising panic, the thumping heart, the surge of adrenaline and the mode of self-preservation that the subconscious slips into.

Kohli might have had something to do with the ungainly haste with which the celebratory events on Wednesday evening were put together in Bengaluru, a little over 15 hours after the title was secured in Ahmedabad, but he certainly wasn’t responsible for it. Because of the imminence of the talisman’s departure to London, those that saw an opportunity to cash in on being at the forefront of putting the show together showed scant regard for protocol and police advice, choosing to place personal interests ahead of safety and security measures that most certainly would have been in place had the police machinery had greater time to plan and organise an event certain to attract tens of thousands of RCB fans delighted that their long wait had finally come to an end.

Calling off would've triggered more unrest

There has been criticism of Kohli being in the vanguard of the celebrations inside the stadium even after the stampede outside cruelly snuffed out 11 lives (as subsequent revelations confirmed). But anyone who watched the proceedings would have immediately noticed that he was merely going through the motions, that there was neither exuberance nor palpable shows of delight or orchestrating the crowd, such an inimitable Kohli feature. Suggestions that the stadium show ought to have been cancelled in its entirety didn’t take into account the fact that the 35,000 people inside were largely unaware of the disaster that had unfolded outside. To have called off the show would most likely have triggered greater unrest and potentially unchecked anger. Because telephone networks were jammed, either by design or otherwise, word of the unspeakable tragedy was not yet common knowledge among those who populated the stands.

Without going overboard, Kohli did what he had to under difficult circumstances. To fire salvos at him for alleged indifference doesn’t do anyone credit. There were many glaring lapses that catalysed the avoidable cataclysm, but to lay the blame at Kohli’s doorstep? Not done.

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