Virat Kohli, who has been playing for
Royal Challengers Bangalore since IPL 2008, said that he has offers from other
franchises but he decided not to leave the Bangalore side.

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“To be very honest I thought about
it. Yes, I won’t shy away from it and I have been approached many times as well
to come into the auction somehow, put my name there and stuff. And then I
thought about it, I was like at the end of the day everyone has X numbers of
years that they live and then you die and life moves on. There would have been
many great people who won trophies but no one addresses you like that. No one
addresses you in the room like ‘Oh he’s an IPL champion or he’s a World Cup
champion,” Kohli said on RCB’s franchisee show on Star Sports.

Kohli said his loyalty to RCB is far
greater than winning an IPL trophy with another team. Kohli is the first
cricketer to play over 200 matches for a single franchise – RCB. So far he
played 218 matches for the franchise.

Also Read: Should Virat Kohli be included in the Indian T20 World Cup squad?

“It’s like if you are a good
person, people like you, if you’re a bad guy, they just stay away from you and
eventually that’s what life is all about. For me the understanding that the
loyalty with RCB like how I follow my life is far greater for me than the fact
that five people in the room will say Oh finally you win the IPL with whoever
xyz. You feel good for five minutes but then sixth minute you could be
miserable with some other issues in the life. So it is not the end of the world
for me.”

Kohli further said that RCB trusted him
and back him all those years when he was in poor form, especially at the
beginning of his career.

Also Read: IPL 2022: MS Dhoni becomes 2nd cricketer after Virat Kohli to play 200 matches

“What this franchise has given me
in terms of opportunities in the first three years and believed in me that is
the most special thing because as I said there are many teams who had the
opportunity, but they didn’t back me, they didn’t believe in me,” Kohli
said.

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“So, now when I am successful and I
should fall to the opinion of people saying ‘but’ the IPL. This was the case
with me till 2018 England tour happened. For four years of my life I was doing
well everywhere in the world, the only thing was ‘but England’. So, there are
always going to be ‘but’, you literally can’t live your life like that and I
just carry out doing my own things and I actually honestly don’t even bother
about a third person beyond myself and Anushka discussing things and just being
true to ourselves and that’s it. For me nothing else or no one else’s opinion
matters at all.”