This does not show the picture which Indian media is circulating where Shafqat Rasool is showing a middle finger to the crowd.

The crowd lacked sportsman spirit!

But of course, the offensive picture is missing...:-) Poor Pakistanis...always the victim of conspiracies...LOL!

Pakistan beat India to qualify for Champions Trophy Final with Germany and the celebrations were icing on the cake. Maza aa gaya!!

@Observer The crowd were not sportsmen, Pakistan and Indian players were...removing T shirt is offensive gestures ,, Football u get yellow card for such monkey tricks

@Javed @Shubs ..When Virat Kohli shows his middle finger to Australians in Australia , why it is such a bad thing here. Do you mind to state why spectators were saying to them. So now it hurts ...yum yum...

Tables turn , Modi planned to show the finger to Pakistan, But the Hockey team got the chance first and that too inside India , Anger is acceptable.. !!

well done guys. i want to ask all indian where were you when Saruv Ganguly came off his shirt after winning against england. Did england claim as you are crying? blah blah blah all gibberish.

@Shubs so what if he showed a picture of a finger, in response to all the abuse and objects hurled at the visiting team by the hostile spectators. Is this Indias immaturity level, cannot take 1 finger. How pathetic.

@MICKY MOUSE OF WAR not if u take shirt off after the match. Just accept it, Pakistan is a young lion of the region, it has downed the old decripid elephant every time.

The indians must ask themselves this question. Why did the Pakistani hockey team, who have played in umpteen countries, won and lost, including against India, have never reacted like this. This only happened in India, therefore, it is time for India to introspect and see where the problem lies within itself. The crowd all 7,000 , there behaviour and were any objects being hurled, which is against FIH rules, endangering players. India , it appears, has a problem with itself. Don't deflect it, deal with it.

@faisal You have access to the internet. This is not too hard to find: "Virat Kohli has been fined 50% of his match fee after he was seen gesturing to the crowd with his middle finger on the second day. The level two charge was laid by the match referee Ranjan Madugalle on the third morning of the SCG Test." http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/content/story/548089.html He pleaded guilty, accepted his punishment and has not repeated this behavior till date. Not a single Indian cried "conspiracy". Most of us thought he reacted to baiting, and reacted badly. If you want to be accepted as a respectable sporting nation, learn to behave like one first.

Have to admire and salute pakistan's great performance. The brave 11 standing up to 7,000. Our spectators behaved very badly, I have to admit.

I wish the Pakistan hockey team would've behaved like gentlemen. There are kids watching on TV. But then, what else can we expect from Pakistan?

@Observer Indians don't carry sportsman spirit. The looks are on their faces when losing is horrible to see ! poor people.

so from Indian media and public, a player showing finger to somebody in the crowd who was abusing and cursing them is a major sin and the whole team needs to be banned. anybody needs reminder here about virat kohli middle finger salute to the crowd in sydney? probably not as indians are always right. indians definitely needs to grow up.its just a game where young kids celebrated their hard fought victory in a little bit more animated way than for the liking of these sour losers

@ javed you can find it.....just google it...& its unbearable if u represent a country & do such kind of thing. This is not acceptable whoever do this childish thing.They deserve to be punish.I don't know any place in world is acceptable. Ganguly case is completely irrelevant to this .No need to argue over this point..Its not a rocket science accept your fault like kohli did & try to win the cup ....best f luck

@Zakir Khan Kohli banned 50 % of his match fees & regret for this.... you can google it

@Zak "The crowd all 7,000 , there behaviour and were any objects being hurled, which is against FIH rules, endangering players. " Were you in Bhuvaneshwar? Or can you point me to the news item in any newspaper where this fantastic claim of "objects being hurled" is made? Or are you simply throwing mud hoping something will stick? Just as with 90% of your proclamations on these message boards, you have a very fertile imagination when it comes to India. The least you can do is avoid spreading baseless rumors.

Most deplorable behaviour. Just imagine what would have happened if similar obscene gestures were made in a Football world cup or even in any international football match

Pakistan zindabad.

The players of Pakistan team was only celebrating and the india team was crying hahahahaa.

@Great Indian Lahore is chaotic.

This allegation that crowd abused the players first as absolutely nonsense. The crowd in fact had supported Pakistanis more than other teams through the tournament. Worse than abusing the crowd now Pakistanis are inventing stories as they don't have any logical reason.

I think, it was disgusting what they did. Showing middle fingers to the crowd and taking shirts off, is bad manners for sure

@Great Indian thanks the ID suits you as you only acted like a decent guy. About Pakistani team's act I have read on Indian newspaper so much cheap comments on Islam, Pakistan and muslims. It was just a game they lost and they brought Islam into that and forgot that they have a huge muslim population in India. Now I wonder do they hate Pakistani team, Pakistan or Muslims or actually Islam as every second comment was not about team but about hate to Islam.

No one talks when German team showed finger to Pakistani team. Where is FIH? why they are not banning German team member who showed middle finger. it shows they are bootslickers. And if Pakistani team shows finger then they are Muslim terrorists and if German team shows finger then they or not nazis? what a hypocrisy! I think Pakistani hockey federation should also bring a case of German team's behavior to FIH and Pakistani media should also publish this news with pictures and keep repeating this news until German team does not seek apology. Why only Pakistani team say sorry, German team should also say sorry for their actions. Why there is no justice for Pakistanis when its Pakistani vs other teams???

what players did was wrong to some extent ,,,we admit it ..they are facing it now ... congrats to team PAK :-) what the whole crowd at the stadium ,the Indian Media did was SHAMELESS and jealousy !!!!!!!!!!!!

Going shirtless and rejoicing after the victory, no body will resent. Crowd was shown 'middle finger' by Pak players which offended the sentiments of the media and the masses in a host country. It lead to the understandable outrage. Those pictures have been omitted here for good reasons. The current images of Pak players showing roses to the crowd is a good gesture to cool down the passions.

Not too long ago Suresh Raina was rubbing salt in the wounds of the Pakistani fans by smiling at them and putting his finger on his lips and pointing to the scoreboard. Did anyone complain? No. Because that is different, right?

Take that India. Beat you where it hurts most, in India itself. :)

@raja wasi jealous of Pakistan , you made my day. memory is short-----u forgot the Asian games I suppose.

Keeping playing great work.

I am ashamed to be an Indian at this moment. I have seen foot ballers taking off their shirts on live tv gazillion times.. nothing wrong with that. But I never saw such pathetic behaviour from a crowd that we showed on that day. Lucky it wasnt reported or live telecasted to the entire world like a cricket world cup match. It would have been sheer embarrassment. It already is.

The crowd DOES not have to show sportsmans spirit! They have come to cheer whoever they please!

@Saadia Khan That rarely happens in India,why should religion be brought into it.

@Observer Wow you can't control 11 players but expect to control 11,000 spectators!

@Zak You should ask yourself, why is it that so many teams visited India and have visited earlier for playing such Hockey games, yet your team is the only one that got picked out. Now is the time for introspection and improvement rather than spinning the usual conspiracy theories and finger pointing stories. By the way go over to the Indian media to see how your player is giving the middle finger to the crowd.

Middle finger was NOT shown by anyone. Watch the youtube clips closely. Anyways, Pakistani sportsmen should have showed some respect. No point replying to the crowd. And as ever, India would use their political clout to make sure Pakistan is banned, or else they'll use the 'boycott Pakistan or we'll boycott you card'. Classless attitude by everyone.

@Shubs What about the Indian team initially refusing to shake hands after losing, which was the trigger for the stunned crowd to start throwing bottles. YES the shirts did come off after this and there is nothing wrong with that . . . it happens in every sport. YES if a finger was raised that is bad. Lets agree that both sides are to blame.

Actually the title should have been "When the fingers were raised". You guys have an ostrich mentality not understanding the gravity of the indecent behaviour. Shahid Afridi did this post 2011 world cup saying Indian Hindus can never be big hearted like Pakistani muslim. Most of you were proud of his comments(including the so called pakistani liberals) until he made a stupid comment against women. Instead of condemning this stupid act, crying foul and come up with all kinds of excuses to justify this behaviour is the scariest thing. Now any small chance you had to make money is going down the drain.

Great Pictures....Pakistan won its Finals....

should not have shown the finger. That is not acceptable. Let us be very honest we should not support the behavior of players after victory.

It's unbelievable that many Pakistanis are blaming the Indian spectators. FYI, in any sport in any country, the home crowd is always hostile towards a visiting team & calls them names, hurles insults etc but the team on the feild is never allowed to engage with the crowd and retaliate. Its an unwritten & written rule in every sport.

Its interestin to note that Dawn has not shown the picture in which one Pakistani player is showing the finger!

@Observer Thats why your coach issued an apology letter which was backed by the President of Pakistan Hockey

Pakistan Hockey zindabad, shameful act of Indian Hockey...for Banning Two Guys for Final

I think we should not blame crowd.. Coz first they are not the chosen one like 11 players in the field. Players have more responsibility and u cant compare them with crowd. They should behave professionally.. I dont think removing shirt is an issue if its not written in their code of conduct but showing abusing signs to crowd is really very shameful.. Win is win but they should behave maturely.. Sorry to fans from Pakistan irrespective of their nationality..

@faisal What is wrong is wrong, and two wrongs do not make a right. I do not think anyone defended or defends the action of Virat Kohli, and nor should anyone defend the action of the players in this instance

@Observer @Faisal @Zak @Waseem And all of similar mentality from Pakistan (of spewing venom against India). As a spectator in the Kalinga stadium where I (and several others) who supported and cheered Pakistani hockey team in every match(except of course against India), must say that we were very very disappointed by the behaviour of their team members after their win. Removing for shirts for exchanging with the opposition team is perfectly alright but they didn't removed them for that. Showing middle finger to that crowd (which supported your team) is very shameful and totally uncalled for. Put simply, we were hurt for the behaviour of Pakistani hockey team. We didn't deserved it. The only sensible person in this whole episode seems to be the Pakistani coach. His apology should be accepted and we should move on with the game.

What Pakistani players did was stupid and immature. However it was done at the heat of the moment and we should let it pass after some commensurate punishment is given to the erring players. What's definitely worrisome is common Pakistani citizens or at least many of them supporting the behaviour. I also strongly dislike people giving it religious or cultural colours in India. It's neither representative of a proud country nor its culture and should not be used to incite hatred for the team or the people. I am sure sensible people on both sides of the border would not like to see a repeat of such incidents. We win some and we lose some, and it's ok. Period.

@Shubs If Virat Kohli is fined 50% of the match fee then fine these Pakistani Hockey players too. but what's the fuss? Why then the indian media is over-boiled?

@Great Indian Why you have to comment with a pseudo name under the guise of an Indian? You should be truthful while commenting.

Firstly I would like to say that the behaviour of the Pakistani player making rude gestures towards the crowd was wrong. However, I also believe the punishment given to them (not allowing them play finals) is appropriate and enough. What more does the Indian hockey management want? It would be interesting what they would have done if it was members of their team who made the rude gestures. Secondly, inappropriate things said and done has happened alot by many sports teams of past including India. Personally I found it utterly unacceptable when a well known indian cricket player after india won cricket semi finals opposite Pakistan said we have taken revenge for the mumbai attacks. What?! What?! Did the Pakistani cricket team carry out the mumbai attacks?! Thirdly, Indian exaggerates far too much. It reminds of American news channels that over sensationalise and dramatize and present India as the ' victims'...If india doesn't want to play Pakistan their loss and their problem.

@MICKY MOUSE OF WAR that happens during the match. After the match they can take off their shirts!

I remember these comments from Shahid Afridi and Sohail Tanvir about Hindus. Shahid Afridi made his comment after Pakistan lost the cricket world cup semi-final match to India- Hindus don't have a big heart. He made it in order to save his image in front of his fans, after he made the comment defending his team and saying that why is it a big deal if Pakistan has lost a match to India. Sohail Tanvir said "Hinduon ki zahniyat his aisi hai" when the Indian IPL teams, in the background of 26/11, decided not to pick any Pakistani players during the auction. Well now looking at the actions of the Pakistani hockey players or the response of Pakistan to Lahore Declaration- Kargil, one wonders what are "Pakistani zahniyat" and "Pakistani dil" like. Hope Dawn has the courage to publish this Article. There is nothing written here which is factually incorrect.

@zebswati good

http://www.hindustantimes.com/sports-news/othersports/hockey-pak-players-hurl-obscene-gestures-towards-crowd-media-after-win/article1-1296307.aspx

Nothing much about this particular article. But yes, I visited dawn online edition to read and news about reactions in pak media. I'm a regular visitor of Timesofindia online edition. But, after going through dawn edition, I find it (Dawn) better in presentation and unbiased news comparatively. Good job Dawn, keep it up. BTW, this is a small incident blown out of proportion by everyone. Few players created this issue and they have been served the sentence, so chapter closed. Ultimately, players from both sides in all sports should start behaving better. Leave all the bitterness in the ground and come out with open hearts after that. After all, we are humans and should replicate human behavior. Peace!

@faisal .....Kohli banned 50 % of his match fees & regret for this.... you can google it and watch indian media's report of that time.....everyone just paunced on kohli......

Despite Crowd throwing insults and all kind of abusive language, I believe Pakistan Players should have acted with dignity and respect. Some of their gestures were offensive and unbecoming of athletes they are and the sportsmen they profess to be. Indian spectators were openly hostile and abusive.

As a Pakistani I am ashamed of what our team did after the victory. They did not have to stoop down to the indian crowd mentality. In this hour of victory, humility would have been preferred.

I am Indian- so let me get that out of the way. I am not sure why we Indians and Pakistanis become so defensive (it turns into a war) when it comes to simple things like sports. Pakistan won a great match. Congratulations to them, I am rooting for them to win the finals. The Indian crowd- I am sure was partisan (and probably abusive at times)- shame on them. The Pakistan team may have lost their cool after winning- pity. It would have been so much more impressive if they had not shown the middle finger. Taking off your shirts in joy is hardly that offensive.

In any match,one side will win and one side will lose.It is a game.We have to be magnanimous in victory,never lose your shirt.

At all lovely Indian fans this controversy is just a storm in a tea cup. Fans from both sides should just move on.

Indian crowd tried to burn Eden Gardens in 96 World Cup semis when India was loosing to Sri Lanka ... Match had to be abandoned ... Indian crowd and media are embarrassment for the Sports World

@Zak same applies to india. they played several times but never behaved like this. why only Pakistanis show this kind of rude behavior

@Observer its not the crowd which needs to show sportsman spirit, its the sportsperson who have to do so... any such act cant be justified.. even if u see, in cricket.. there are more hootings to players and also large number of crowd there..but none of the cricketers shows rough attitude towards the spectators.. and whenever they did..they got punishment. Sports persons needs to be more humble than crowd..because they represents a nation, even if u think that what the players did was right then u should also see the 1972 summer olymics record..when 11 pakistani players were banned for disrespecting the german flag.

@zak Pakistan crowd behaved worse when indian team visited Pakistan for cricket match. but they never showed this kind of rude behavior

@Zak oh yes... kindly see the history of pakistani hockey players reputation... see 1972 summer olympics, when they showed disrespect to german flag. and 11 players banned for it.. and now they are showing this arrogant and rough attitude towards croud. they represent a nation.. and there acts also represent the acts of the nation. even if there are hootings ,then u can see that in cricket there are more hootings in crickets but cricketers never show disrespect to crowd...and whenever they did .,,they got punishment

Pakistani players should not have misbehaved to the crowd, no matter how ugly the crowd behaved. Hockey players are professionals not amateurs. We should issue an apology immediately for this behavior to the Indian public.

@Zak What you'll do if Indian player shows you the middle finger in Pakistan Ground and that time you sit with your wife and daughter.... here is nothing to show off only we are demanding the justice.

Well done guys, hope women's team does the same!

Those who love hockey will always remember this match. Both Ind and Pak should encourage sporting ties as it is a treat to see them play hockey. Nobody should encourage payers to go on obscene show. For the love of hockey players should be given a stick for bad behavior. The relationship between our country is always delicate and what gets hurt first are the sporting ties. Hockey is my favorite sport and from childhood indo pak matches have been like "made in heaven" let any team win. Let us only think about good hockey and teach players some lessons on tolerance. It is not that Pak has won for the first time or India has lost the first time. But it is sad that with such incidents we will be able to see less of this legendary hockey. Europeans play physical hockey. India and Pakistan still depend on skills( master skills). So let us preserve our hockey and wash out the bad incidents. By the way I was shocked by the last minute stunner by pak player and did not know how to react. Electrifying hockey. Let us play more of hockey and less of hatred.

Pakistanis are alleging that Indian spectators were not gentle to the Pakistani sportsmen.. But no picture of any of the misbehaving Indian spectators has been shown in the entire Media including this article..

I think the Indian press Photoshopped the middle finger pictures. Pakistani players were trying to show the roses (like they did after the finals) -- they didn't realize that the roses had been stolen. Moreover, what is a finger between friends!

Fair enough ! Since Pakistan needs to go hyper in offensive gesturing and Indian spectators cannot take it lying down,let the India Pak matches cease in all disciplines till some one blinks sometime .Let us see who gains and who looses out. he culprit lies there

This not a mature behavior. Celebrations should be very modest and low key. One should humble himself in front of his God and thank for His kindness.

Areh in the Asian games East Punjab(India) beat West Punjab(Pakistan). So now west Punjab beat east punjab. Just two punjabi teams having fun yaar. leave it.

Where is the sportsmanship, this is a game for fun , enjoyment , recreation , to promote friendship , to socialize and have contact people to people. Our team behavior was very poor, they behave ungentlemanly in a host country. Even if the Indian crowd was unruly and misbehaved , still our Pakistani should have behaved respectfully, I strongly feel that culprits should be punished accordingly and Pakistan hockey federation bar these player from playing international hockey for at least two years.

as a indian i feel we are going over board on this issue and yes they won and celebrated in their own way that ok and we need to discount their behaviour forget and go on why make a issue out of it . These hockey guys from pakisan are poor and have come from low econmic starata [ even in india ] and it seems they didnt have money to buy tickets to fly to India .. so they clebrate as per their up bringing thats it .. is it ok if virat kohili shows his middle finger to SCG crowd ?? is it ok if our sourav removes his T shirt ? why this double standard ?

i must say two wrongs don't make one right .

@Saadia Khan: There's something called "reputation".

@Zak we are what we are. Stay away...!!!

@faisal "@Javed @Shubs ..When Virat Kohli shows his middle finger to Australians in Australia , why it is such a bad thing here. Do you mind to state why spectators were saying to them. So now it hurts ...yum yum..." Virat Kohli also had to apologize and was fined his entire match fees. So what Kohli did was wrong and the same with these players.

indians are bad.Why oh but why few days ago Dawn reported that Pakistan wants India to play them, so that Pak. Hockey makes money.Why Pak wants to play cricket with India, why every cricket player from Pak wants to play IPL, why every film and tv star of Pak wants to act in Indian film and tv soaps.Some time back a senior journalist from Pak was asked why are you pushing hindus in India.She said we are not, and why India does not accept muslims from Pak.Do it and half of Pak will walk in. Dawn---I know you will not publish it.

@Zakir Khan so when Virat Kohli was fined 0% of his match fee, India did not complain. He did something rong, he paid a price why are you all not taking the same attitude?

@shezad "Middle finger was NOT shown by anyone. Watch the youtube clips closely." This has been documented. There were 2 players who did that.

@Majid Sheikh "YES the shirts did come off after this and there is nothing wrong with that" In the past this was common. Now even in Europe this is against the laws in football games. Shirts cannot come off. Also finger was shown. Trying to establish equivalence between crowd behavior and behavior of sportsman representing country is absurd.

All Pakistani Hockey players looks like South Indians.

It is sickening to see the fight in internet blaming each other by digging dirt on each other. Hatred is not good to anyone. Also 2 wrong cannot be one correct. When Virat did a mistake, he accepted the fault and fine and punishment so as Saurav when he removed his shirt. "Courage" which is most necessary for ant sports person to own the fault is very much missing for sure.

@Javed How can they show that picture which hows the team in bad light and gross violation of the rules and decency.

@A Ahmed At least India is in a position to host international sporting events. Unlike Pakistan, where the teams have to go to the UAE to play 'hosts'

@Jason you can expect a lot better from the decent people of Pakistan. These players who behaved badly are not the true representatives of the people of Pakistan. Most of the people of Pakistan are decent , honest people, the players come from a strata of society for whom good morals are an oddity. Unfortunately these get chosen .