BENGALURU: Two champion athletes – Virat Kohli and Sunil Chhetri — have a common message: Sport is an essential component of education.
The former India cricket captain and the current national football skipper on Friday shared their life experiences, correlating it to education, sport and mental toughness at the ‘Let There Be Sport’ Conclave, organised by PUMA India.
Chhetri, who is pursuing a sports management course at the ISDE Business School in Barcelona, said, “The right importance has to be given to sport in schools and it should be an integral part of our upbringing. There is no one aspect individually in life that teaches a kid more holistically than sports. It teaches you to be a good human being, to win and lose. It is high time we inculcated sports in our system right from school.”
On one of the key learnings from sport, the 39-year-old said, “I fail and succeed every other week. I’m shouted at and abused at and at the same time I’m somebody's hero every week. Nothing teaches you humility better than sport.”
Chhetri also urged athletes to take academics seriously. “Athletes are very sharp and have a good grasp capacity. I tell the present-day children, why are you wasting time and not studying? That’s the sad part of sportspersons, we tend not to put more effort and time into studies, which is easier,” he added.
Kohli, for whom soaking in pressure is a daily affair, stressed on the need to embrace it.
“You can try and be safe for a certain amount of time but in every person's life at some point a huge amount of pressure is going to hit you and you cannot run away from it. What sport taught me can be applied in every walk of life. There is nothing called safe options,” said Kohli.
On handling pressure and following instincts, Kohli cited the example of the match against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup last year.
“I was under so much pressure that my mind was shut off completely. At the 10th over mark, we were 45/4 and I had just run out Axar (Patel). I was 12 off 21 balls, I remember Rahul bhai (Dravid) came and spoke to me in the break and I didn't know what he said because I was zoned out. I was like, it is worse than it was before. I have spiralled down so far now that there is no comeback from here. That was my feeling at the halfway mark. I was under so much pressure that my brain shut down and my instincts took over. Whatever God-given talent I have, came to the fore,” he said.
