Australian skipper Ricky Ponting admits that he is unsure how he would react if faced with the situation his Pakistan counterpart Inzamam-Ul-Haq faced at the recent Oval Test match in England.
But he is pretty sure he would not take actions that would put the sport under an unfavourable microscope, with the Pakistan captain facing bans for his part in the Asian side forfeiting the match against England.
“The way it happened with them (Pakistan) doing it at the tea break, they have obviously gone off and had a really good talk about it at the time,” Ponting said.
“I was watching the TV and saw their manager and their coach in the dressing rooms but I don’t know what was behind the decision.”
Who knows how I or the Australian cricket team would handle it but you’d like to think that we’d be able to do the right thing by the game and everyone concerned."
However, Ponting is not worried about frayed relationships between Australian cricketers and its Pakistan counterparts in light of Australian umpire Darrell Hair seemingly being at the centre of Pakistan’s anger. It was Hair’s decision to dock five runs from the side for ball-tampering which led to the revolt.
“Elite umpiring panels are their own little group, we don’t see them (Australian umpires) in the Test matches anyway,” said Ponting, alluding to the fact that umpires cannot umpire matches involving teams from their country of origin.
“I couldn’t see how there would be any feelings from a Pakistani cricketer against an Australian cricketer.”
Source: sportal.com.au
