India-Australia Cricket Test Series: The Case of Pointing Fingers!

Article first published as India vs Australia: The Case of Pointing Fingers on Technorati.

Indian batsman Virat Kohli showed a finger at the crowds during the second cricket test between India and Australia in Sydney recently. Since he showed his middle finger it was taken as obscene and accordingly he was penalized.

Indian pacer Ishant Sharma followed the gesture and also showed a finger. But there was a huge controversy regarding which finger he showed. Officially it was not the middle finger and so he was not penalized.

Both players alleged that the abuses thrown at them by the crowds were gross and at times indescribable. They seemed to have only retaliated in ways they thought to be tit for tat. The incidents led to a big debate in Australia on good manners and particularly the Indian traditional ones. But the peculiar case of pointing fingers has a deeper significance and typical ramifications.

The team that prided in having the best batting side of the world failed miserably so far in the Australian tour and fell in heaps in the first two cricket tests in Melbourne and Sydney that they lost by huge margins. So, basically they invited wrath from Indian fans and naughtily gleeful satisfaction from the Australian media.
Apart from the mind-games that Australia played so often the Australian media consciously focused its attention on the hapless team and attacked it from all sides. Essentially, therefore, they were the first to point fingers at Team India. India’s session of go-carting instead of doing practice was covered lavishly and since some of them including batsman Sehwag did not follow captain Dhoni for the session preferring net practice a rift within the team was suspected. Allegations and denials were still continuing till the reports last came in.

The point finally is that when you play badly and horribly you are bound to have all the fingers pointed at you. It’s up to you to decide which fingers they were—the middle or index and definitely not the thumb! Skipper Dhoni further accentuated the finger-pointing episode by indicating that he might retire from Test Cricket in 2013 if he is to play the World Cup-2015.

With the Perth test starting tomorrow where the pitch will be the bounciest Team India would need to concentrate all their fingers combined round the cricket bat handle or the seams of the cricket ball. If they lose it again they will be out of the series with 3-0 deficit and more fingers will be pointing at them. When they come back to India the finger-game will continue with more gravity.

For Indian traditional greeting of ‘Namaskar’ all fingers of both hands fold up and combine. Not any particular finger! One should understand essentially.