Virat Kohli, National Duty and Paternity Leave

A cricket season is back! India is playing test matches against Australia. One of the most discussed topics was whether Virat Kohli should come back to India between a tour to accompany his wife as they are expecting their first baby. In India, you will get opinions on both sides, which is OK. However, some of the ex-cricketers are saying that Virat is on national duty and he should have stayed back to support the team. This makes me sad!

First of all, playing a sport for your country is not national duty. Cricket is a commercial sport and it should be looked at these players are doing similar job that our police officers and arm forces do. Cricket or any sport is a form of entertainment. We should look at the cricket or any sport as one of the business sectors, similar to IT or Banking, etc. Various sponsors or companies make investment in the sport and we may pay them because it entertain us and not because these players are fighting for our nation's pride. When we have this clarity then nobody would have any problem with Virat is taking leave for an important moment in his life. 

Those who work in corporate companies get this paternity leave (most of the time) of three days if we inform our manager in advance. So, Virat Kohli did that. He informed BCCI and may be the team management that he won't be available for later part of tour for so and so reason. If we take extra leaves that is more than 3 days then that would be considered as leave without pay, that is company won't pay us. We are happy to take pay cut-off as most of us want to live that moment, want to be with our family. I guess, Virat will get paid for the test matches (And anyway he won't care as his earning from match fees will be peanuts compared to what he gaid paid for all commercial). The third point is. if you have reached very high in your career you can make these decisions. if you are a CEO of the company then you can take 1 month paternity leave if you wish. Has Virat Kohli reached that level? Yes, off course. He is the best batsman in the world, there is no threat to his captaincy or his place in the team. The fourth point is, India has lost to Australia in many test series except the last one when Australia was weak team. So, it is not something unusual is going to happen if he does not play the test matches. Or even if he would have played the series there were equal chances that we may have lost the series. 

Some people are giving an example of Dhoni. In 2015, Dhoni was playing the world cup in Australia when his daughter was born. When a question was asked to Dhoni, if he is going to visit her daughter. That time Dhoni said that he is on national duty and everything can wait...something like that. We can say that it's Dhoni's opinion. The second thing is it was world cup and it comes after every four year. I guess, Virat Kohli would have played the world cup if he faced similar situation. I don't mind even if he does not play in such situation. Because, A) It is not national duty but just sport.  B) It does affect our life at a large extend if our national team does well on the international arena. We just feel happy or motivated or patriotic for a moment and then forget everything. 

Good thing about Virat's this decision is, it would help many Indians to set their priorities. Many people might counter with Sunil Gavaskar's argument that there are different rules for different people. He said that a left hand rookie Natarajan's daughter was born during IPL season but he is yet meet her. In an ideal world, rules should be same for all but sadly we are not living in the ideal world. Natarajan has just started his international career and yet to cement his place in the national side. Suppose, if he leave the tour in between there might be chances that he may not get chance in this team (for whatever reasons). So this is his priority. May be this decision would help him to support his family in a better way. 

I think we all live that way. We have our priorities and we may decision accordingly.