Virat Kohli (Image credit: PTI)

PANAJI: Virat Kohli ’s presence at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda created plenty of buzz and excitement. The India cricket captain is co-owner of FC Goa , the Goan franchise in the Indian Super League and his presence was enough to inspire Goa to their biggest win in this edition. Kohli spoke exclusively to TOI on football, his love for the beautiful sport and desire to see every sport grow in India.

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Excerpts…

Does it make business sense for you to invest in football, or is this purely a passion that you are following?

It’s passion. Unless I connect to a certain thing, I can never be a part. Even when signing brands, I have started following this (principle) very closely. I need to be there from inside whatever I am doing. I have always followed football. Even now we (cricketers) get so excited playing football, because the sport is so easy to get a hang of. You can understand the rules. Obviously at the elite level, it’s different but it’s something that excites children very quickly. It’s about having a ball in front of you, trying to do something with it.

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There is motivation attached with the sport. Then there was this vision of growing together with the league. I see football developing in India in a massive way. The kind of awareness that ISL has created, everyone around the world talks about it. It’s been a wonderful change to Indian sport and I totally want to endorse that. One thing that I have missed growing up with is sporting culture. When you come to football games, you can see the sporting culture. Because people who follow football understand the sport. This is not about hitting the ball anywhere and running behind it. There is certain intelligence attached to football and those who understand football know exactly what’s going on.

You spoke earlier about India’s sporting culture, or the lack of it…

My ultimate aim in life in general is to have a sporting culture in India where people know each and every sport inside out; to be able to follow all sports equally. I am certainly excited about the fact that we are at a juncture where we have a chance to create that in the next 10-15 years and we foresee Goa as the hub where footballers feel, ‘if I want to become a high-class footballer in India, I need to go there and train’.

Have you ever wondered why India has not had the same success in football as much as cricket?

It’s lack of leagues like this at a major level. There is nothing like globalising the sport. With the kind of visibility on television and the kind of access that people have, it’s creating awareness. People know Indian players. People even watched all those who played at the Under-17 World Cup. It’s all about visibility. Unless you get to show your talent, on television screens, it’s very difficult for people to start liking something. It happened with me as well. If our Under-19 World Cup wasn’t televised, maybe I wouldn’t have been sitting here. Our matches were televised and we got our chance to portray our talent. Then people started talking about us. The kind of visibility that the league has will play a major role.

In the past you have spoken about helping sportspersons from other fields. As a successful cricketer, do you feel an obligation to help other sports succeed as well?

The whole idea is to give back to sport. Cricket is a sport. So, when you have ultimate vision of creating a sporting culture, I want to give back to sports as much as I can.

We’ve seen Indian cricketers play football, whether it’s free time or part of its own training schedule. How good are the cricketers with football and do they take the game seriously?

We love it. There is a motivation attached to football. If you ask me to run 20 laps around the field, I would get bored after a while. But if you ask me to play a football match after a training session, I would keep running after that ball because I have a chance to do something with it. It’s a beautiful sport; everyone in the team likes it, and we love to show off as well.

