Kesrick Williams, the West Indian quick, regrets his stand-off with Kohli

When Kesrick Williams made his debut for the West Indies in 2016, the St. Vincent fast bowler was hailed as a promising customer from their assembly line. Eight years down the line and after a tryst with injuries, the journeyman cricketer is now better remembered as the man with ‘notebook celebration’ who had a series of on-field showdowns with Virat Kohli.

The issue came up during an exclusive interaction when Williams stopped by at a meet-and-greet session in Kolkata and the 34-year-old regretted saying that it all happened at the heat of the moment. ‘’No gesture (for a send-off) was planned and it all happened in the heat of the moment. Kohli is a great fighter and I like his competitiveness on the field – not to speak of the fact he is one of the greats of the game. He is actually quite a warm person,’’ said Williams, who had been a leading performer for St Lucia Zouks in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

While the master batter had several run-ins with big names in international cricket, he didn’t clearly forget the one he had with the West Indian. Back in 2017, he had dismissed Kohli and followed it with his trademark ‘notebook celebration,’ where he gestured as if he was striking the name of the batter who was dismissed by him. However, Williams admitted in an earlier interview that he was surprised to know that even more than two years after the incident, Kohli remembered it and was not going to let him forget either.

In a bilateral T20I series in 2019, Kohli played a blinder of a knock to take India home in a stiff chase of 208. “In the first game, when Kohli walked in to bat, he walked straight to me and he was like: Hey, you got me in Jamaica the last time you bowled against me, it’s not going to happen here. I was like this thing happened in 2017, this is 2019, this guy really studied this thing? I was like I can’t believe this guy,” he had said.  

When the Caribbeans won their second T20 World Cup in 2016 (they are only the third team apart from India and England to have won it twice), Williams was on the verge of making the national team. When asked if he expected his compatriots to do an encore at home earlier this year, Williams said during an interaction at The Dugout Sports Club: ‘’Actually, they didn’t do badly at home. There is a lot of power and ability in West Indian cricket, but we are getting beaten on technical aspects. The other factor which is harming our cricket is that we have a lot of bias as people in power take decisions as they please – and you cannot question the selectors.’’

Future plans

In 26 T20Is that he played between 2016 and 2020, Williams picked up 41 wickets at an economy rate of 8.76 while he has nine wickets to show from eight ODIs. However, the last time he put on the maroon shirt was against the Kiwis in 2020 and he is realistic enough to know that a comeback to international cricket is now beyond his means.

‘’I have been struggling with an injury and didn’t play any competitive cricket for the last year and a half. I am in India for a treatment in Ahmedabad and in future want to focus on playing franchise leagues – even the IPL is on my radar. I am not greedy and if I can play in about five of them in a year, I will be happy and can spend the rest of the time with my family,’’ he signed off.