Smith sorry, Kohli unfriends Aussies

Gaurav Kanthwal

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 28

After losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to India, Australia have also lost some friends in the host country. At the very least, they’ve lost the friendship of Virat Kohli, which he himself revealed after India won the fourth Test by eight wickets to take the series 2-1.

Before the series started, Kohli said he was “really good friends” with some of the Australians, with whom he’s shared the dressing room in the IPL. Today, Kohli emphatically said: “It has changed for sure. I thought that was the case (about he being friends with the Australians), but it has changed for sure.”

Edit: India  wins over Australia

“As I said, in the heat of the battle, you want to be competitive but yeah I have been proven wrong,” he said. “The thing I said before the first Test, I have certainly been proven wrong and you won’t hear me say that ever again.”

The bitterly fought series was marred by acrimonious on-field spats which saw the players sledging, making faces and hurling abuses.

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The animosity carried on off the field too with accusations of unfair play: At Bengaluru, Kohli stopped just short of calling his counterpart a cheat. Yesterday, Smith called Murali Vijay a cheat.

After the match, Smith apologised for losing “control” over his emotions, without specifying any particular incident. “It’s been pretty intense throughout the series,” he said. “At times, I have lost control over my emotions. I apologise for that. At times I have been in my own bubble and have let my emotions slip.”

The boards too had jumped in. CA’s chief made a personal comment against Kohli; BCCI opened up a front online. Smith said he was “disappointed” it had uploaded a conversation between Ravindra Jadeja and Mathew Wade.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is a fountainhead of intense rivalry. ‘Monkeygate’ involving Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds in 2008 remains the chart-topper.