With a click of our fingers we can find someone guilty

In the Avengers: Infinity War “The Blip” (also known as the Decimation or the Snap) began when Thanos exterminated half of all living things in the universe, chosen at random, with a snap of his fingers.

Perhaps this catastrophe has informed the global outrage surrounding an English club cricket cheating scandal, where a fielder clicked his fingers to mimic a nick of bat on ball that led to an imaginary catch.

Piers Morgan has declared “Clicky Ponting” the biggest cheat in cricket history. The chief culprit has been named and shamed and his sponsor (an Indian restaurant called Spices) has withdrawn its support. 

He has seen his face (and fingers) spread across global media and opprobrium poured down. Probably not what he was expecting before last weekend’s game for Saltburn Cricket Club 2^nd Eleven.

Leaping to his defence mother-in-law, Georgina, has called him a “man of integrity” noting “It has got totally out of hand”.

I am not defending deception on the sports field, nor indeed any walk of life, but this has all the characteristics of a “pile on” where everyone can vent their outrage, demand punishment and revel in the discomfort of others.

But be careful as you cast the first stone and the scapegoat is cast into the wilderness.

Motivated reasoning and slippery slopes effect us all, and what starts as a one off stunt can spiral out of control. Those of you who claim to have never deceived anyone, may well be deceiving yourself.

And as for being “the biggest cheat in cricket history”, that would need to be judged against international match fixing, sandpaper-gate, and WG Grace’s colourful reputation for stretching the rules.

Little of Piers Morgan’s cricketing career is known; although he was fired from the Mirror for publishing fake photographs, and his testimony under oath on newspaper phone hacking was described by Lord Leveson as "utterly unpersuasive”.

We all have our areas where we feel honesty is more or less important. For some it is cricket and for others truth and integrity in the media.

Once the North Yorkshire and South Durham League have concluded their investigation and Clicky Ponting has served his time, I hope he is allowed to return onto the field of play and back into Spices restaurant.

And he should take comfort in “The Blip” ending after five years, when the Avengers utilized time travel and a second snap of the fingers by Bruce Banner (aka The Hulk), restored all those previously killed by Thanos.