MS Dhoni refuses to be drawn into any verbal duel with the Australian cricketers but the host captain believes the visitors have already started a mind game.
NAGPUR: Mahendra Singh Dhoni refuses to be drawn into any verbal duel with the Australian cricketers but the host captain believes the visitors have already started a mind game ahead of Team India's visit Down Under later this year.
"It seems the Australians have started the mind games now itself for our visit. They have won a series and think they can say whatever they can. But we still have to play under the same sun even in Australia. I don't believe in engaging in verbal duels," he said at a post-match press conference on Sunday after the sixth ODI here.
Symonds has added fuel to his simmering duel with the Indians by describing the ongoing tour as 'hostile' and warning the team of a backlash when it tours Down Under this year.
Symonds, who is engaged in a war of words with the hosts since the seven-match series began, said he knew India was "never an easy place to tour, but I am surprised how hostile it has been".
The all-rounder, on his fifth tour of India, said the 'World Twenty20 champions' still had a lot to prove and were set for a searing summer in Australia.
"They're saying they've built up this new Indian team, but we'll see how much they've changed at the end of our summer," he was quoted as saying by the 'Sunday Telegraph'.
"We have had the edge on them here and we will get them again in Australia this summer. They've beaten us in a Twenty20 game and one one-dayer in four years. You can't gauge much on that, but we'll see how this so-called new Indian team goes on our soil," he said.
Symonds, after clobbering the Indian bowlers for a match-winning 107, said that he drew on the alleged 'monkey chants' directed at him during the fifth one-dayer in Vadodara, for his pulsating innings.
"I drew on it. It helped me get going," he said.
Saying that the racist remarks were not the root cause of his anger, the all-rounder said what upset him was the denial of the concerned Indian authorities, without naming them, thatthe incident had happened.
"I did not mind that it happened. What disappointed me is somebody and someone denied it happened," he said.
The Baroda Cricket Association, who conducted the match, and the Vadodara Police Commissioner had brushed aside the player's charges and said nothing like it occurred.
"It's not in my hands now. It's to the powers that be," he added.
The matter has attracted the attention of the International Cricket Council which said in a statement that they have asked the Indian board to look into the issue, which has been denied to have been received by BCCI's CAO, Ratnakar Shetty.
Today Symonds seemed to be ever eager for a running battle with the Indian players and he and Irfan Pathan seemed to be exchanging hot words in the vicinity of the umpire at one stage.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting, later, and Indian opener Sourav Ganguly, initially, drew Pathan away from Symonds before the matter could take an ugly turn.
Asked about the incident, Symonds brushed it aside saying, "I was asking the umpire how many balls were remaining in my over and Pathan was standing nearby."
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