ONCE THERE WAS A ‘MIDDLE FINGER’!

Once there was a middle finger whose owner 'Virat Kohli' was very happy to own such an asset. The finger was fair in color, good in health, tall, beautiful and most importantly, loyal to her owner. She used to take proud of her owner as he had achieved some serious feat: cemented his place in the Indian National Team, performed well in ODIs, T20’s and working hard for a place in the test side.

Virat Kohli is one of the finest talents the country has produced. He has accumulated loads of runs in the ODIs and has 8 centuries and 18 half centuries under his belt in One-day cricket. Being just 23 years old, this is quite a feat. In his captaincy the India U-19 won the World Cup and that paved his way into the National Side. The youngsters coming into the team today have one thing in common, that is aggression. If you see Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Aaron, all have this personality trait. Even, some of the seniors, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh have this trait inherited in them. Aggression and Gentleness are completely different things and what Cricket is by definition: 'A Gentleman's Game!'

Now, coming back to the story, that is, the story of the finger. A finger basically has many functions to perform, it helps in the day to day works like eating and the phrase 'Finger lickin' good' has come from there. And in cricketing terms, the fingers are used to hold the bat, to take a catch and to hold the ball for bowling and to give the revolutions to it. And from the bowling in cricket another term has come, the 'finger spinner'. Apart from these functions some of the fingers have special functions, for instance, one person showing thumb to other means Good Work when shown Up(thumbs-up) and the thumbs down means just the opposite. These gestures means a lot and the gesture of showing a middle finger means something serious ( although, sometimes, it is done just for fun as well) and when 'the finger' is shown in public, it adds to the seriousness. And on the cricket ground in the presence of a 30 thousand people it further makes it a terrible thing to do.

And this is what Virat Kohli's finger did one day. The deed of Kohli's asset got vast criticism, but made him news in the foreign newspapers. Who the hell in the world not like popularity! And then, the explanation came from the talented cricketer equally talented in giving explanations as well. Defending his finger he tweeted, "I agree cricketers don't have to retaliate. What when the crowd says the worst things about your mother and sister. The worst I've heard."

 

But, it’s unfortunate that the game of cricket has got vastly in the favor of the Batters, that is it has become a Batsmen dominated game, the power-plays, the T20s are all for the Batsmen. And the latest example of this is Indian bowler Ishant Sharma's Middle Finger show hasn't got the newspaper space. Why? It’s not a fare Game at all, he must be saying!  

INDIAN CRICKET TEAM: LIONS AT HOME, LAMBS ABROAD!

Cricket in India has the largest fan-following than any other sport. It is a surprise for a few as the Hockey being the National Sport is no longer respected as the same. Also, the huge amount of money involved in the Game of Cricket and, must say, the quality of Cricket over the last couple of years have attracted many. Indian Cricket Team have played fabulously well in the last couple of years. The Team became No.1 in Tests, won the ICC World Cup 2011 and many said that Test cricket had got the revival because of the Indian Team, especially, Indian Giants Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman playing some real good cricket. It was because of the collective efforts of the Team India that they became No.1.

But, they weren't able to enjoy the No.1 spot for long as the tour of England ruined all the good work team did to achieve it. Only 'THE WALL', that is Rahul Dravid, remained impervious and the rest of the batsmen fell like a pack of cards. Their misery continued in the One-Day Series as well. They weren't able to win even a single game on the England tour and definitely, it didn't helped their confidence. Then England came to India and all started going well for the Indian Team. The big guns started to fire again. The team started winning again and everything seemed normal till the completion of the West Indies Tour of India which the team won comprehensively.

So, this asserts the title which I have given to my post, that is, the Indian Team is a tough competitor at home, but, not outside! What happened in England is again happening in Australia. The team played two practice matches as compared to the one played in England just to give themselves more time to get used to the conditions, but the results of all this is in front of us; a 2-0 against them in the first two tests. This time only Tendulkar is making the runs and the rest of the batsmen get so indulged in his batting that they lose their chance to bat longer! Jokes apart, the players are not applying themselves there. Before the tour, many former cricketers and experts said that this is the beat chance Indian Team has to win a test series Down Under, which they haven't done so far.

The Australian veterans Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey will be thanking the Indian Bowlers and the captain MS Dhoni's defensive tactics to get them back in form. Even their bowlers Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle will be thanking so called 'tired' Indian Batting lineup. The team has helped the English Players as well to get back in form in the test series in England, where Ian Bell, Stuart Broad and Ravi Bopara performed exceptionally well. What the team is lacking today is the confidence and their belief to perform well on foreign soil. Must say, Sourav Ganguly seeded this belief in the players, but, Dhoni hasn't been able to continue that streak.

The 100th 100 of the master is taking too long to come and if it happen in the test in Perth, the team moral will get a hike and, for sure, the overall team performance will increase. Hope all goes well for the team in the upcoming ODI Series and the remaining two test matches. If the some of the team members start taking their batting more seriously than their 'MIDDLE FINGER', surely, the team can make the 2-0 (against them) 2-2 or more realistically, will give a fight to the OZs.

I used the middle finger in the context of Virat Kohli showing it to the crowd present at the SCG. He justified his act on his twitter account after a day of his 'Finger Show' saying, "I agree cricketers don't have to retaliate. What when the crowd says the worst things about your mother and sister. the worst I've heard." To which the English Batsman Kevin Pietersen replied, tweeting, "ha ha ha ha ha!!! Welcome to Australia buddy!!"