Now, Ishant shows finger to fans

The Indian team's ongoing tour of Australia is not only a disaster from the cricketing point of view, but also turning out to be a catastrophe as far as public protocol goes.

- When Indians breached the Code

Paceman Ishant Sharma showed his middle finger to assembled cricket fans, as he and his team mates went go-karting at a local club, Indian television channels reported on Monday.

Quite a few Indian cricketers, including skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and batting icon Sachin Tendulkar, went for go karting on Monday evening, and were apparently ruffled to see a posse of television cameras and mediapersons following them.

Despite all attempts to keep the media out of bounds, they had their pictures and videos, much to the cricketers' annoyance.

It apparently led to Sharma showing his middle finger to a heckling crowd which had gathered there, the reports claimed.

It's the second time that an Indian cricketer has shown his middle finger to fans during the tour.

Virat Kohli did so during the second Test at the SCG and was fined 50 per cent of his match fees.

The Indian team's media manager, G S Walia, said he was not aware of any such incident.

"I am not aware of any such incident (Ishant showing the middle finger)," he said.

Walia also sprung to the defence of the Indian cricketers, who are being roundly criticized for attending a go-karting session instead of nets, saying it was a way of de-stressing.

"The team had also gone for a cycling session ahead of the Perth Test of 2007-08 and they ended up winning the Test," he said.