Reminiscing the “good times”, fans have taken up the task to go deep into Kohli’s Instagram account and pull up posts that are devoid of hashtags or sponsored brand deals. Those that show cricketer’s true personality, something that fans feel has been absent in the past few years across his social media accounts.
“AdGram”, “Spotify without premium”, “Times Square of Instagram” – Kohli’s Instagram account has been given names and they are quite unflattering.
To combat this, a micro trend has quietly kicked off on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter), where fans caption their posts with “Life was good when Kohli…” attaching a non-ad post (yes, they exist!) by the cricketer.
“Spot the unsponsored post”
Fun activity: Go to Kohli’s Instagram account and a find a post that is not a brand deal. 34 posts of banking app, energy drink, snacks, air conditioner and we reach July of 2024 where we spot a post where the cricketer isn’t selling us anything. It’s a photograph of beaming Team India with Narendra Modi at the Prime Ministers residence.
Team India met up with the PM at the 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence over breakfast after the T20 World Cup 2024 victory. “An excellent meeting with our Champions! Hosted the World Cup winning team at 7, LKM and had a memorable conversation on their experiences through the tournament,” PM Modi wrote in a post on ‘X’.
Mind your own business?
From Virat Kohli’s perspective, it all makes sense. With only few years left to his retirement, a section of fans couldn’t care less about what his Instagram account is being used for. “Go get the bag,” is the general sentiment here. Or perhaps it’s to steer away from any kind of controversy?
“Even if he posts something, people will ask why didn’t he post about the other things?”
“He doesn’t get involved in controversies not related to him and doesn’t face unnecessary backlash. I just wish his vlogs didn’t discontinue after COVID. They were fun,” wrote one Reddit user.
“If he posts something then people will say what about this or that or what were you doing when this happened or that happened… there’s no end to it better not to post anything, (sic)” commented another in the same discussion around over-commercialisation of Kohli’s Instagram.
BCCI rule
“Players have been informed verbally to avoid posting any confidential matter on social media platforms. They can post pictures while training but posting a score leads to breach of contract clause,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by The Indian Express back in 2023. This was in direct response to Kohli revealing his Yo-Yo score with his millions of fans.
