Australian team rallies behind Ponting

SYDNEY: The Australian team has rallied behind skipper Ricky Ponting who is facing attacks from the local media and whose removal has been demanded.

"Ricky has got the full support of everyone in our team and probably every cricketer around Australia," leading batsman Michael Hussey said even as a well-known cricket columnist Peter Roebuck demanded that he be sacked as captain.

"I think he is the best captain I have played under. We go out to play the game as hard as we can but also as fairly as we can, and Ricky is very big on that," he said.

Hussey also said the Australian team had nothing to apologise for, maintaining the now-threatened series had been played in a hard but fair spirit.

The batsman, whose second Test century in Sydney has been almost forgotten amid the controversy, said he was 'shocked' by Indian captain Anil Kumble's assertion that only one team was playing in the spirit of cricket.

"That was a surprising comment and a little disappointing," Hussey said on Monday at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where he was filming a cricket-based Bollywood movie.

"The spirit has been fantastic for the first two Tests, and not just that, for the 60 years we have been playing Test cricket against India. The two teams actually get on very well; it has been absolutely brilliant. "

"That's why I've been shocked by Kumble's remarks. There have been a lot of contentious decisions, but you've got to accept the umpire's decision. It takes discipline to do that without showing any dissent," he said.

Hussey said Ponting had done nothing wrong by reporting Harbhajan for allegedly calling Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds a "monkey" and was merely following ICC protocols.
    
Admitting that it was "disappointing" the way the controversy had played out, he hoped Ponting and Kumble could get together for peace talks and "work this all out".
    
Denying accusations that the Australians were arrogant, he said "I know all the guys and that's so far from the truth it's not funny. We have a great pride in playing for the baggy green cap, and for each other.
    
Meanwhile, the Australian media was critical of BCCI's reported threat to pull out of the ongoing tour saying it is a "veiled form of blackmail" and the ICC should not succumb to the Indian Board.
    
Cricket writers here felt the Indian team's grievances against controversial umpire Steve Bucknor may be "genuine" but their threat to pull out should be given the "harsh response it deserves."
    
"India's threat to boycott the Australian tour has come down to a battle of who runs cricket - India or the ICC," Robert Craddock wrote in 'The Daily Telegraph'.
    
"If the ICC buckles and overturns the Harbhajan verdict because of Indian pressure, it may as well shut its doors in Dubai and cease to exist," he said.
    
"If the ICC feels Harbhajan was worth suspending, it must not crumble in the face of a subcontinental blackmail from the world's most powerful cricket nation," it said.
    
He, however, sympathised with the Indian "genuine" grievances against umpire Steve Bucknor, who has been replaced by New Zealand's Billy Bowden for the third Test in Perth.
    
"India want Steve Bucknor sacked from the next Test in Perth and so he should be. Every grievance India have against him is genuine," Craddock said.
    
"But India's suspension of the tour while they wait for an appeal on the suspension of Harbhajan Singh is a veiled form of blackmail and must be treated with the harsh response it deserves," he said.
    
"If the Harbhajan verdict stands - as it should - and India abandon the tour, then so be it. Their nation will be in disgrace, their team retreating as men who cowered in the face of substantial adversity," he said in a harsh comment.
    
"Racism is always a difficult issue, but this case is exacerbated by the nationality of the accusers," Peter Lalor wrote in 'The Australian'.
    
"The sore is running again. The racism and cultural hostilities that marred Australia's one-day series in India last October have infected the Test series and taken the focus from what was a great sporting contest," he said.
    
Lalor also alleged that India had failed to address racism in their society and recalled the Vadodra ODI during Australia's tour of India in October last year.
    
"Andrew Symonds fielded near the fence in front of a hostile section of the crowd, who began to make monkey chants."
    
"When asked why they were doing it, one replied: 'He looks like a monkey'," he recalled.     

Writing in the 'Sydney Morning Herald', Greg Baum criticised Anil Kumble for his comnment that only one team played the Sydney Test in true spirit of the game.
    
"India's sportsmanship at times was as lacking as Australia's when using elaborate ruses to slow the over rate on the last day. India got the rough end of the stick here, but were as sore losers as Australia were graceless winners."
    
"... India have done themselves no favours by bringing a tit-for-tat charge against Brad Hogg," he said.
    
"Overwhelmingly, in all spheres, it is whites who have practised racism against non-whites. Yet in cracking down on racism, cricket makes as its first example a non-white player. This was always bound to sit poorly with Indians.