Ponting's men need an image overhaul
RICKY PONTING'S team has an image problem, and yesterday the game's highest official urged Cricket Australia to do something about it.
Malcolm Speed has been working around the clock to bring some calm to the volatile series between Australia and India and to ensure that it goes ahead. Controversially, but in the interests of the game, he acceded to India's requests to have umpire Steve Bucknor stood down from the third Test and called in a referee to stand between Bollyline skippers Ponting and Anil Kumble.
Yesterday, though, the International Cricket Council chief executive touched on a problem almost as difficult to solve, since the Australians cannot understand why they are so unloved as it was an Indian player accused and found guilty of racism.
Ponting's team is on the verge of extending its winning streak to a world record 17 Tests, but rather than being celebrated it is being condemned in some quarters for what has been described as graceless behaviour in the Sydney Test.
CA chief executive James Sutherland believes the criticism is unwarranted and "inappropriate", although the man who at the start of his tenure oversaw a major crackdown on player behaviour admitted yesterday that there were some incidents at the SCG that concerned him.
Speed, himself a former chief executive of CA, at least acknowledged there was a problem.
"They are a great cricket team; I would hate to see them remembered for any reason other than that," he said. "The team is being criticised, members of the team are being criticised, and they need to be aware of that - they need to respond to that."
Sutherland was emphatic in his support of Ponting and would not elaborate on which incidents concerned him in Sydney.
He said he had no problem with Andrew Symonds' inflammatory verbal reaction after Harbhajan Singh patted Brett Lee on the backside, the acts that preceded the alleged monkey taunt.
"Test cricket is what is being played here. It's not tiddly winks. It's a tough game, and out there from time to time emotions will bubble over, and perhaps some of the words that are said would not be acceptable in genteel company, but they are said and that is what happens," Sutherland said.
"In some specific areas, there are probably some things that I picked up that I would have concerns about. I don't want to go into those in any detail. To some extent, as I said, there is no perfection here and we don't go through five days of a Test match with a perfectly clean sheet. I don't think any team does."
Ponting hurling his bat in the dressing room after being wrongly given out in the first innings and Michael Clarke's stay at the crease upon nicking a ball to slip, after confidence had been lost in the umpires, were among the imperfections in Sydney.
Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson is among the former players distressed about the reputation of the Australian team which has, rightly or wrongly, been tarnished.
"There's certainly been a lot of feeling from ex-players who think the baggy green has been disrespected," Lawson said on Sydney radio. "I think a bit of counselling needs to be done with how these [current] players perceive themselves. As an ex-Australian player, I was pretty disappointed.
"Perception is everything, and the outside world thinks that this Australian team is arrogant and not well behaved. Whether the team themselves think that is another issue, but I can guarantee you the rest of the cricket world certainly feel that about this cricket team."
The players are likely to discuss their image before the third Test in Perth. The first step will be to admit there is a problem.
