Virat Kohli breaks the silence on six-year-old "middle-finger" debacle

Virat Kohli is a newsmaker of all kinds – be it his magnificent run with the willow, his presence on the field or off it, his work as captain – Kohli has never been short of being headline-material. And to think that it was always the same way speaks volumes of how Kohli has not changed much over the years.

One incident that will always be associated with him, would be the controversial middle-finger display to the stands during a Test match in Australia, in early 2012. And he opened up about it in a recent interview.

It was during the 2011-2012 India's visit to Australia that Kohli showed the earliest instances of the person he can be while fielding at the deep end of the ground. Apparently, the Australian crowds took some offensive digs at him, and Kohli chose to retort at them using his sticking-out middle finger. Using offensive words and gestures are violations of the players' code of conduct, and the Kohli's doings were hence liable to a serious action.

Later it was reported that he would be entitled to pay a fine of 50% of match-fees as punishment. Cricketing circles largely saw it as Kohli “getting away” with a lesser punishment than deserved, while calls for match-bans also arose. But there was no match-ban, and he went on to score his first Test hundred in the fourth innings of the fourth game in the series.

Young and immature

In an exclusive interview with Wisden Cricket, Virat Kohli spoke on the six-year-old story and said how he had defended himself and his action back then, though he doesn't anymore – also regretting slightly about it.

"The match referee [Ranjan Madugalle] called me to his room the next day and I’m like, ‘what’s wrong?’," Kohli told Wisden. "He said, ‘what happened at the boundary yesterday?’. I said, ‘nothing, it was a bit of banter.’ Then he threw the newspaper in front of me and there was this big image of me flicking on the front page and I said, ‘I’m so sorry, please don’t ban me!.'"

Prior to the happening, Kohli was at a fledgeling stage in his career, with just seven tests under his belt and a batting average of less than thirty. Luckily, he escaped suspension which would have set his career back by at least a year, considering the time it happened.

"I got away with that one. He was a nice guy, he understood I was young and these things happen," Kohli spoke thus on Madugalle's involvement.

"I really laugh at a lot of the things I did when I was younger but I’m proud that I did not change my ways because I was always going to be who I am and not change for the world or anyone else. I was pretty happy with who I was," he concluded.

Virat and co. are currently at it on the final game of the England-India test series, and will be looking to save their faces with a consolation win, having already surrendered the series 1-3.