Ed Cowan has added his name to the long list of Australian cricketers who had something colourful to say about Indian captain Virat Kohli.
The opener, who made his debut against India, recalled an on-field altercation with Kohli saying that he “felt like picking up a stump and stabbing him” after being told something “highly inappropriate”.
“I had a very sick Mum during one of those series and he said something that was inappropriate. A personal matter that was highly sensitive. Highly inappropriate,” Cowan told Fox Sports.
“But he didn’t realise that he’d overstepped the mark until the umpire came over and said — ‘Virat that’s overstepped the mark’ — and once that was said, he took a step back and apologised. But, there was a moment I wanted to pick up the stump and stab him,” Cowan added.
Cowan then went on to say that it was a matter of “lost in translation” because “English isn’t their first language.”
“We forget that English isn’t their first language. It’s very easy to sit back and say as a player they’re barking something at me that is inappropriate when we don’t try and converse with them in Hindi. There’s always going to be niggles around misinterpretation of what’s said and what isn’t said on the field,” Cowan was quoted as saying.
However, he also added that he’s a fan of Kohli’s batting. “I’m a huge fan of his cricket. Don’t get me wrong he’s a phenomenal cricketer,” Cowan said.
The recently concluded India vs Australia series was hotly contested both on and off-field, with a number of bust-ups between both teams. The ante was upped by the former Australian players and especially the media who painted Kohli as the bad guy – from calling him ‘cricket’s most villainous captain since Arjuna Ranatunga’ to ‘cricket’s Donald Trump’.
Kohli, who had an uncharacteristically bad series with the bat, went on to say that he was no longer friends with some of the Australian players, and reportedly refused to have a post-series beer with the visitors, adding to the overall bad blood of the series.