KOLKATA: Question papers seldom attract smiles of students, but if they are asked to write on Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli, it is surely one such occasion.
Students appearing for this year's class 10 West Bengal board examination got this surprise when they were asked to write about the ace batsman's life and career in 100 words, based on some reference points given in the English second language paper.
"In the 'Unseen' section, 10 marks were alloted for writing a biography on Kohli and almost all my friends opted for this question. We all were excited even after the English exam was over," said Swarnabho Banerjee, student of Sagar Dutta High School of Belgharia here.
Swaranabho's friend Sudip Malakar said, "Even if the reference points were not given, we would have attempted this question. Is there anyone among us who does not know about Kohli?"
Headmistress of a girls' school said it showed that students have to be conversant with current affairs as well as their curriculum.
Cricketer-turned MLA Laxmi Ratan Shukla said the board has done the right thing by introducing a topic on Kohli in the question paper.
"I think questions on icons of other sports too should be introduced in future by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and others," he said.
Board president Kalyanmoy Ganguly said, "Kohli is the newest addition. There had been questions on the lives of popular figures in the past as well."
Over 11 lakh students wrote the English paper in the examination conducted by the Board last week.