Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson: Rivals on the pitch, friends off it who bond over YouTube links and books | Cricket-world-cup News

Virat Kohli is talking about human species’ larger role in the planet. Why we are here and what’s our role. Not quite Yuval Noah Harari, but with spiritualism sprinkled. In the ICC video from a couple of years ago, it takes a few seconds to sink in that he is actually talking about his friendship with Kane Williamson.“We connected on lots of things beyond cricket: how we look at life, the larger reason for everything, it was interesting to note his way of looking at life is pretty similar to mine. We bonded on that,” Kohli says.
“To keep an awareness of what we actually are here as human beings, as species, a larger reason for why we are here and be at ease with ourselves. Then everything becomes opportunity and no pressure. I was amazed to know that we connected on books, the videos or talks we can watch on YouTube. Of the few people I have become friends with beyond the professional world, Kane is one of them. Our friendship has been organic. He is a very nice, chilled guy, very respectful of you as a person and your space – I admire that,” Kohli raves.
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It’s then Williamson’s turn. He talks about Kohli’s impact on the game – “He has changed it with his appetite and hunger”, before saying, “He is a gentleman as well, spent a lot of time with him over the years.”
The two friends who send each other YouTube links will yet again head into a pressure-cooker game in a World Cup semifinal. The first time they met in a semifinal was in 2008 U-19; Kohli had Williamson stumped, Williamson took Kohli’s catch, and India won 3 wickets. Next, was of course the antithesis of this year’s world cup slogan – ‘It Takes Two Days’ would have been apt as Williamson walked away as the winner in 2019.
Williamson might know his friend pretty well, but Kohli this World Cup has been an experience that will stick in the mind. Relaxed on the field as well, lots of laughter with team-mates, smiling chats with the opposition – the wicketkeepers and the umpires, bantering with the crowd – he once made them chant Shubman Gill’s name rather than a lady’s name they were taking, to rile the opener. He is in what is called a ‘happy space’.
When his game is going well, he can turn into a statesman-like cool figure. He seemingly gets high on performing, and when that happy space is sorted, he can relax and show his other side. Especially in the context of giving up the captaincy, accepting that loss, hunting down and eventually capturing the elusive form and runs, and successfully battling mental health, suddenly the emotional floodgates have seemingly opened. A relaxed persona has set in. This version of Kohli has rarely been seen on cricket fields.
Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson (File Photo)
Those who know him would know that side, but it can now be visibly seen. The Kohli on-field cam that would zoom in to see him grimace, curse, get angsty, grumpy, seemingly almost ready for a fight now throws up instagrammable pictures of aww-ness. Perhaps the key visual of his lowest point, a few months after the captaincy situation where he accused selectors and board presidential figures of lying, was that one evening in IPL when he walked off utterly bewildered his poor form, looking up at the skies and yelling out his frustration: ‘What else do you want me to do?” That Kohli is now a dant memory.
Williamson on the other hand seems to have always been this ‘cool’ figure, who quips humorous interjections, is at ease with himself, and with a sense of perspective about most things. Their developmental years couldn’t be more different. Kohli is from West Delhi, wild west of the capital with the neighbourhood mushrooming with haphazard colonies that housed partition-refugees. Williamson from a vastly different country, open-spaces and a better quality of life.
Is he always like this? That question was put to his cricket coach at school who was also his social science teacher, Josh Syms. “He is really that good, no dark bone in his body,” laughed Syms. A sentiment shared his batting coach David Johnston who has known him since he was 10. The cricketing world of course has nothing but respect for him. Not a whisper about him.

Even as a boy, he seems to have coached adults. Johnston rewinds to a 12-year-old Williamson. He had scored three 100s in a row. His dad was the coach and swapped the batting order next game, sending his son down at No. 6. Williamson hit a century to take the team out of trouble, batting with the no.10 in a match-turning partnership. When they walked off the field, all the boys came out and clapped in admiration.“He saw that, stopped, let the other kid walk first and clapped him off the field. When I saw that, right then, I understood his character. The sensitivity in a 12-year old to realise the other young boy might feel left out, the need to put his team ahead – that was a defining moment for me. He isn’t just a good batsman but a good person,” Johnston says.
Once during an ODI series against India, he came to attend a funeral of a staff member at the club he had played. “He went quietly through the backdoor, paid his respects and left. No fanfare. New Zealand doesn’t really know how good he is,” Syms sounds almost emotional. Someone has to be. Williamson doesn’t for sure. “Oh, he has this amazing ability to take nuts and bolts off any situation, take the emotion out of it, assess what’s the problem and what he can do to solve it,” says Syms.
On match eve at Wankhede stadium, Williamson came for a media interaction. Radio New Zealand reporter, perhaps the lone New Zealand journal here so far, piped up with ‘On 29th May 1953, Edmund Hillary climbed Mount Everest ..’ A hint of a smile spread out from Williamson’s lush beard, “I remember that day!” Guffaws.
Suddenly, the microphone began to malfunction. An ear-piercing noise swelled around the room. Then the audio link to the television cameras went down. A nearly 10 minute wait ensued. Williamson sat there patiently, bantering, ‘Make sure you ask that question again. You will probably be the only person asking a question in a conference. I shall answer it five different ways.” He then added, “Oh yeah, I am quite a talker!” More laughter. When normality was resumed, any possible question trying to make a game of cricket bigger than it was, was punctured with a lightness that’s uncommon with athletes.Most Read
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Often in modern-day cricket, the ‘coolness’ quotient has been tagged to the likes of Faf du Plessis & Ben Stokes, whose overwhelming personalities and magazine-cover worthy physicality makes it easier for such adjectives. Williamson is one of the real cool figure in cricket. Witty, pithy, with a measured sense of perspective about the highs and lows of the game. Not many, if any, captains would have taken the heartbreaking defeat in the last world cup final as he did.

“He was also intelligent and good at studies,” says the school teacher Syms. “What stood out for me was that for a young person, he was incredibly driven without inconveniencing anyone else. He was always self-less in that respect. As a school coach, and now a rug coach for a team, I have seen a lot of good athletes are incredibly selfish – not Kane.”
Virat and Kane both emerged from different backgrounds. Kohli had ridden on his fiery ambition to rise above the parapets of Delhi cricket politics where snipers are ever-present to take anyone down. To come from where he has to earn the respect of likes of Kane wouldn’t have been easy. For Kane to come from where he has to earn not just admiration but respect from the likes of Kohli wouldn’t have been easy. Two friends, two Youtube-link sharers, two articulate cricketing leaders who bond on their outlook on life will now head into their third World Cup semifinal. The record stands tied at 1-1, what will happen now?