Indian cricket fans will surely take Ricky Ponting's stated intent to play the forthcoming Test series in a "friendly spirit" with a huge pinch of salt.
Familiar with the vast chasm that has existed over the years between the pious professions of tough-as-nails Australian captains and their actual implementation, desi cricket aficionados will subject Ponting's promised desire to end the "bad blood" of the last series to uncompromising scrutiny.
Two days before Gandhi Jayanti, the Australian skipper, whose brawls in India and at home during his youth are no secret, assumed a refreshing pacifist persona.
Responsibility
"I think the way things panned out last summer in Australia, in the middle of the series before the third Test, we actually got together then, Anil (Kumble) and I, and spoke a lot about the way we should play the remaining couple of Test matches, and how much responsibility it is to the captains (sic) to make sure that happens," Ponting said at his press conference.
"Nothing has changed since then. We know there will be a lot made during this series, in the media in particular, about the apparent on-going tension between the two sides.
"But, even as I said through last summer, I don't think the actual tensions between the two sides was probably as high as what they were made out to be."
It's that old chestnut again: blame the media, the habitual bugbear and perpetrator of all wrong-doing, whereas the players themselves (his own, particularly) are lily-white, pure as driven snow.
"I don't think the actual tension between the two sides was probably as high as what they were made out to be," Ponting said.
Of course not. Millions of Indian television viewers only imagined things.
IS THE SMILE FOR REAL? Ricky Ponting on the opening day of Australia's tour game against the Board President's XI at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad yesterday.
Acrimonious
PIC/Suresh KK
And who says the on-and off-field events, which almost led to the tour being called off, were serious enough to be generally termed the most contentious since the notorious Bodyline series?
It is heartening to note that the Australian skipper accepts his own responsibility in ensuring there is no repetition of the acrimony of the last series.
But Ponting would do well to remember Kumble's memorable comment in the heat of the battle that, despite the pre-series agreement between the two captains as regards upholding the spirit of the game, only one team was doing so.
The absence of volatile Andrew Symonds, presently serving a sentence for indiscipline, and the professed chastening of hotheads Harbhajan Singh and Santhakumaran Sreesanth in their understanding of what constitutes "aggression", bode well for the smooth conduct of the series.
Scrutiny
But, given the world champions' known seeming obsession to "dominate" through "mental disintegration", the captain's relentless ambition to prove that his team is second to none, despite the retirement of some of its leading lights, and his personal resolve to turn his disappointing personal batting average of 12.29 on its head, it remains to be seen if Ponting's promise will be translated into action.
The deportment of Ponting's men will be under particularly scrupulous examination by the discerning Indian public this time around.
As, undoubtedly, will be the performances of Pakistani umpires Aleem Dar and Asad Rauf, Rudi Koertzen (South Africa), Billy Bowden (New Zealand) and, most importantly match referee, Chris Broad, who is notorious in some quarters in the sub-continent for his proclivity for showboating and a what's-sauce-for-the-goose-is-NOT-sauce-for-the-gander mindset.
