Cricket's Return to Fans
Host: I'll get started by asking you that, three years IPL was in a bubble. You played in the bubble for a long time. Yeah. Must have been very tough.
How does it feel to get back to real cricket with stadium and Chinnaswamy screaming? Virat Kohli: It's, actually the first game seemed unbelievable to me. You know, you almost forget the memory of driving to the stadium with so many people outside the ground.
And this, the one interesting thing, Glenn Maxwell said to me after he saw that, he said, "I know the situation was unbelievably tough and you know, everyone was suffering all over." and we had to continue to play, which was again, for me, quite a difficult period because I was like, this doesn't seem right.
Not because there are not people in the stadiums, but in general, you know, everyone's kind of trying to just get by, and here we're playing a sport. Just felt odd. So when we returned to normal, that's one thing he said.
He said, "I can't believe we played in empty stadiums for so long." Yeah. The fans are the essence of the game, especially seeing the passion of the fans of RCB. IPL always has been a special tournament.
So when I saw those people outside the stadiums and the lead up, I got all the videos of the lead up to the game as well, like the queues for tickets and the frenzy that was in the city. I was buzzing. I was like, I just wanna get to Bangalore.
And when landed as well, when they saw me at the airport, I could just see happiness in their eyes to see me back playing for RCB in Bangalore. So yeah, it was, more like a fairy tale comeback for us. You know, played the perfect game also.
But yeah, just the whole atmosphere was something that I realized that day how special it has been to have all those fans cheer for us for so many years, only because we had a situation where we couldn't see any of them. Yeah. So I had more gratitude and I was very thankful that, I have this opportunity to play in front of such amazing fans.
Host: Was it tough for you to be in the bubble? Personally, it was very tough for me. Not that I like to go out a lot, but just the sense of, not being able to step out from certain places, it was confining me in a way that it wasn't healthy at all.
Plus, there were many things that were happening in the background when it came to cricket with me, which eventually came to the surface later for everyone to know. So no one knew at the time what I'm going through. And in general, I mean, you know, we had our daughter, and just not being able to take her out and show her the world was also very tough on us.
So yeah, the bubble, I don't know how people reacted to it, but personally, I was not in a, in a good space in the bubble.
And after the bubble as well, I realized, not that, as I said, not hanging out every, you know, going for dinners and you know, get-togethers or anything, just the fact that you can go to the lobby area of a hotel and just have a cup of coffee in normalcy. Yeah. Or just sit by the pool and you you see random people around you not, you know, confined spaces.
And it was just like, yeah, you're part of everything. Just that bit was so important, and I realized that later. Yeah, the bubble was very difficult.
We're doing this campaign, Let There Be Sport, and I know that you spoke about it in the conclave we did at Taj Westin the other day. But to this group of people, like we are in the sports business, and we believe that sports impacts much more than, you know, a You're an athlete. Yeah. It's a everyday life.
I know you feel very strongly about it. I want you to quip on that for the, for this team. Virat Kohli: So we spoke about the values that sport can, provide you with on a daily basis.
If I hadn't, gone on to become a professional sports person as well, I would still continue to play sport as regularly as possible. Because of all the things that I've kind of experienced in my life, nothing has taught me more than sport. And why I say that is because there's a chance to fail and succeed in every moment, and that's a very rare thing to have.
That's where your composure is tested the most and your character is tested the most. And then once you overcome those fears and those doubts, you become a better version of yourself. So this is the discussion we had the other day, that if, for all of us as people, we work towards certain goals, but there's a degree of success and failure attached to it.
If you talk about exams as well, there's certain kind of, you know, nervousness we feel when the results are about to arrive. You don't feel that sense of nervousness when you're actually giving the exam. Yes, you might or might not know what you're doing, but there's still a space where for a few days you're like, "Okay, whatever happened, and then I'm gonna get the result later."
So you just need to be composed in that moment when you're getting the result as to how you react to it. But with sport, you can do that in potentially every moment. So if you're able to overcome those fears and follow your heart, not your mind, your mind can help you make a plan, but your heart will help you apply the plan.
That's, that's my experience. So the more I did that, the more I realized that what my strengths are as a person and what unlimited potential we have as human beings if we don't put any tabs on ourself. And only sport could teach me that, to go beyond your limitations.
You know, the the known limitations of the mind that the mind tells you, "Oh, well, scored runs in four innings, so the fifth one might not work." I never thought like that. I felt like every day was a new day, every moment was a new opportunity to do something special, and then only sport could help me accumulate moment by moment.
And go beyond my fears and teach me what fearlessness means, and then I could apply that to everyday life as well. I'm not saying that there's a guarantee to succeed with this, with this way of operating, but there's at least one guarantee that when you walk away from that particular event or that particular result, you'll be happy with what you did because you followed your heart.
Every time I've followed my mind and tried to calculate my way out of things and I've failed, I've not been able to process it. Every time I've followed my heart and I've failed, I knew that I did what I wanted to do, and then I could accept the situation the way it was.
So it taught me things about, processing success and failure more than anything else could in life, and that made me a more assured person that not everything's gonna be go well all the time, but that doesn't mean that you stop moving, that you stop moving forward.
You have to keep taking those steps to be in the moment, and I think sport can teach you that for every walk of life, whether it's studies, business, anything that you do, it helps you create that fearless mindset. Host: In the meantime, we have Anushka joining us. Welcome. I would like to ask you a question that about, you know, a very stressful professional career.
What is your mantra for balance? You Anushka Sharma: know, it's not easy. I'm not gonna say it's easy, and I think a lot of pressure is put on women.
And somewhere this women being a multitasker is seen as a very good thing, and I think it's true we are able to multitask because we can gather a lot more information and process it and then, you know, execute it. But I also feel like there's a lot of pressure put on us to excel in everything, and we put that pressure on ourselves also.
People really celebrate, "Oh, you know, she's doing this and she's succeeding here, and she's a mother and she's doing that." But I think it's a lot of pressure. So, whenever you do, so many things, you are, you are going to not be doing all of them at.
If you were doing one thing, you would obviously be doing it in a, you know, in a certain way. And doing a lot more things, while it's, it's, it's possible, it takes a lot out of you. So I think the important thing is to prioritize, which I think I have managed to do in our lives.
I know what's important. I know that, you know, my daughter is at this age that she needs a lot more of my time. And Virat is a great father.
He's, he's very involved as a, as a parent. But she's at that age where, you know, we've also seen that she just needs me more, you know, she needs Mama more. So we recognize that.
So I've taken those steps. I mean, I'm. I enjoy acting, but I don't wanna do too many films as much as I was doing earlier.
I wanna do one film a year. I wanna enjoy the process of acting, which is what I like, and balance my life out like the way I am, you know? Like, give time to family.
And even Virat does that, like, just as much as he can, and I do it as much, as much as I can. And you one cannot compare. It's really, it's really individually how, you know, you're looking at your life and what makes you comfortable.
The way I'm leading my life makes me happy. And ultimately, I don't want to prove a point to anybody, whether, as a actor, as a public figure, as a mother, as a wife. I just want to do things which make me happy and make sense to me, and I think understanding that is a, is a lot of.
It's a long process, and it takes a lot out of you but I think I've finally figured out what it is. I do things which feel right to me, and it, I don't look for validation outside of myself anymore.
And motherhood has given me that, because you have to trust yourself so much as a parent, as a mother, because you're taking decisions for someone who's so small and frankly, incapable in a lot of ways. So you end up, becoming very gutsy, and you start trusting yourself a lot more. So I think I'm braver than I was before.
I take decisions which are, which I wouldn't have earlier, which I would've, I would've been afraid to. I feel more fearless now, and I'm not looking for validation from anybody. Nobody. It's just what feels right to me.
I think that's very important for women. I Host: just So you can. You to tell us two things that you want, in general, people Sure.
Should take from you and get inspired in their life. Like, two things that you believe or you do that people should inculcate, and one thing that they shouldn't inculcate. Okay. Should not inculcate.
Anushka Sharma: The first thing I don't think you will want to do is to sleep early. I sleep between 9:00, 9:30 at night. I think that'll be hard.
Is it true every day, every night you're sleeping at Yeah. I don't have a social life. I'm okay with it.
I don't care. Yeah. But I think it'll be a little bit harder to do, so don't do that. But eat early.
I eat early dinner, and I think it's doing wonders to my. Thank you. To my health. Yeah. So I eat with my daughter.
She has lunch at around, 11:00, 11:30, and that's when I eat lunch. You don't even start office at that time. But I feel like I rest better, I sleep better.
All my sleep issues are gone. Ah. I wake up fresher. I have more energy.
I think clearer. I would attribute that to to eating early because that's the only change really that I've, made in my life. Yeah. So it might not work for everybody, so obviously don't follow celebrities and what they talk about unless they're athletes. But do what's right for you.
Yeah. This has worked for me, and has worked for a few other people I know. Yeah, that's what, that's one thing you should do. And the one thing that you should not Yeah.
I think early on, not now, but few years ago, I would react too quickly to situations. Hmm. So I think now I'm learning to Hmm. Rather than react. Hmm.
So that has changed, and I think that's really changed the quality of my Hmm. And yours. Host: Okay. Virat's on-pitch celebration. Virat Kohli: Oh, my God! Ah.
Host: Sit down, man. What is this, man? Phenomenal. Oh, man. Well done. Anushka Sharma: But sometimes the bowler's not celebrating as much as Virat is.
Host: I must say it was fantastic. Thank you so much.
