Back in 2004, after a prolonged battle with drug abuse and heart problems, Diego Maradona was fighting for his life at a Buenos Aires hospital. The Argentine football wizard recovered miraculously before saying that ‘he had stared death in the face’.
But when he was still in that nerve-racking battle for every breath in the hospital, newspapers across the world had already started publishing what read like obituaries for one of the greatest footballers that ever lived.
It was then that a well-known British sportswriter analysed how Maradona was different from all other footballing legends, including Pele.
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Regularly subjected to brutal tackles by defenders on poor pitches, Maradona still managed to weave his magic, dribbling past defenders with the ball glued to his left foot.
Emerging from a violent shantytown in Argentina, Maradona became the talismanic figure who led modest teams — Argentina at the World Cup and Napoli in the Italian league — to magical triumphs.
The brilliance of the curly-haired playmaker left the British writer drawing a striking cultural parallel as he wondered whether Rembrandt could have painted in the dark.
A cricketing conundrum
Now modern cricket legend Virat Kohli’s world is far removed from Maradona’s. Unlike the 1986 World Cup-winning Argentina captain who later struggled with obesity, Kohli’s success is built on his obsession with a healthy lifestyle and rigorous fitness schedule.
At 37, he is still the world’s most formidable batter in the 50 overs format — a ruthless run-machine who produces Maradonaesque heroics in tricky chases.
But the former Indian captain was recently at a loss for words when asked to explain his status for next year’s ODI World Cup.
Kohli will turn 39 when the 50-over global showpiece starts in October next year. Yet, despite his age, Kohli’s form and fitness have remained top-notch even after he retired from the other two formats in international cricket.
While runs have continued to flow from his bat — he has scored 891 runs in 16 ODIs at 68.53 with four hundreds since 2025 —what hasn’t stopped is the debate in the media over his participation in the 2027 World Cup.
These endless speculations are the direct result of the lack of proper communication from the team management and selectors.
Nobody from the coaching staff has come up with a statement that Kohli, who has a record 54 centuries in ODIs, is an indispensable member of the team.
The irony is not lost on the fittest player in India’s cricket history, who has been kept in the dark about his World Cup future.
“My perspective is very clear,” Kohli said in a podcast released by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
“When I arrive to play, I put my head down, I work as hard if not harder than anyone else. And I play the game in the right way. You want me to run boundary to boundary for 40 overs in an ODI game, I will do that without a complaint.”
Inarguably India’s greatest match-winner with the bat in limited overs formats, Kohli is now naturally disheartened to see his future become a subject of debate.
“After operating like this, if I have to be in a place where I have to prove my worth and value, that place is not meant to be for me,” he said in the interview.
“And I am very clear in my head from that perspective. I’m not going out there to prove anything to anyone. I’m going to play because I love playing the game.”
With one candid interview, Kohli has put the ball in the selectors and team management’s court.
Despite the lack of clarity, it’s quite incredible that Kohli has still continued to perform brilliantly in the one-day format, playing a big role in India’s Champions Trophy triumph last year.
The Messi connection
In a way, Kohli’s World Cup story is eerily similar to Lionel Messi’s.
Maradona’s compatriot announced the 2022 World Cup in Qatar would be his swansong. But he continued to wear the famous blue and white jersey after famously leading Argentina to victory.
Messi kept appearing in international friendlies and also played a big role in Argentina’s 2024 Copa America title-winning campaign.
But Messi has never announced whether he would be available for the defending champions in the 2026 Fifa World Cup.
Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni, an astute tactician, found a system to operate without Messi when he missed several matches in the South American 2026 World Cup qualifiers due to injuries.
Without their inspirational leader, Argentina were superb in the qualifiers, even humiliating Brazil 4-1 in a ruthless display of attacking football.
But from 2023 until now, Scaloni has faced a barrage of questions on Messi’s World Cup chances.
The former defender has always shown a clear vision, stating that regardless of Messi’s age, the door is open for the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner.
The little magician, who turns 39 next month, was eventually named in Argentina’s preliminary squad for the World Cup.
Now less than a month before the start of the big event in the US, Canada and Mexico, it seems Messi is ready to lead his team again, hoping to help Argentina become only the second team after Brazil (1958-1962) to win back-to-back World Cups.
Argentina certainly know how to honour the greatest player to have emerged from its soil since Maradona.
Messi may no longer be the force he once was, but Scaloni knows that moments of magic from the Barcelona legend could separate the victor from the vanquished in a World Cup knockout game.
And in India, you don’t have to be a cricketing genius to know who is capable of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in the do-or-die clashes with a willow in hand.
Source: Khaleej Times