The grandeur of ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 can be observed from the fact that former professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. has congratulated Virat Kohli and India for their unbeaten 10-match spree powering them to the finals. For the unversed, Mayweather retired from boxing with an undefeated record of winning 15 major World Championships throughout his career.
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Mayweather was among the spectators to watch a recently concluded NBA match between Sacramento Kings and LA Lakers. Known to be an ardent NBA fan, Mayweather was spotted watching a Kings’ game earlier this year as well.
Vivek Ranadivé, owner of Sacramento Kings in the NBA, made the same possible which was brought into the public eye via a video uploaded across his social media handles.
“I want to say to the Indian cricket team, Congratulations, you guys are the best for making it to the World Cup finals,” Mayweather said.
Previously, legendary Tennis player Novak Djokovic also congratulated the former Indian captain for becoming the first batter to reach 50 ODI centuries on Wednesday. Popular YouTuber IShowSpeed, who was in India last month, also lauded Kohli and his team for qualifying for their fourth World Cup final.
Taking particularly to his Instagram account, Ranadivé had hinted at extending best wishes to the Indian team via Mayweather on Thursday morning. An influential name in the West, Ranadivé had become the first person of Indian descent to own an NBA franchise on the back of co-owning Golden State Warriors in the past.
Ranadivé, who appears to be a vehement follower of cricket and Kohli, had also congratulated the 35-year old player after he equaled legendary Sachin Tendulkar‘s record of 49 ODI centuries on his birthday earlier this month. It is needless to say that, over the years, Kohli’s fan-following has increased by leaps and bounds even in countries where cricket isn’t even a major sport.
Virat Kohli Has A Golden Opportunity Of Winning Second World Cup At Home
Irrespective of what he does against Australia in Ahmedabad on Sunday, 2023 World Cup will be remembered for Virat Kohli’s outright domination. Apart from surpassing Tendulkar in the list of most ODI centuries, Kohli also registered eight 50+ scores in the tournament to better the Master Blaster and Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan‘s world record of scoring seven individual scores in excess of 50 in one edition of the World Cup in 2003 and 2019 respectively.
Furthermore, Kohli’s 711 runs are also the highest in a single World Cup edition. Even this record was held by Tendulkar for over a couple of decades. Additionally, Kohli is also only the third Indian player after Tendulkar and current Indian captain Rohit Sharma to score 600+ runs in a single World Cup.
Speaking of personal milestones, the right-handed batter will have eyes on further bettering his own feat of scoring most runs in a World Cup. Having said that, Kohli also faces a golden opportunity of winning a second ODI World Cup at home.
Assuming India emerge triumphant at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Kohli and ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will become the only Indian cricketers to have won two World Cups. Ashwin, who had played a couple of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 matches, has played just once in this World Cup thus far.
