Provoked Ponting breaks a peace promise

Zaheer may have provoked him, but ricky broke a peace promise

Zaheer may have provoked him, but ricky broke a peace promise

MOHALI:

Ever since the dramatic 2001 series, India Australia contests are considered cricket's greatest rivalry after the Ashes. India have won more Tests against Australia than any other team in the last decade a fact that further establishes the competitiveness. The rivalry is healthy, but the ingrained bad blood amongst players is a worry.u00a0

Journalists, cricketers and even administrators felt that the monkeygate in 2008, a storm that culminated the vented up emotions of the players into a solitary incident, would end the detestationu00a0 and trigger a new beginning. However, six months later, Zaheer Khan mocked his favourite opponents at a press conference, leading to a new series of verbal duels and elbow jabs, that concluded with the frame of Billy Bowden interrupting a potential physical confrontation between Gautam Gambhir and Simon Katich. The Aussies haven't been the same since the series. They also lost the Ashes last year.

Ricky Ponting, who has conceded that the next six months will determine his future as Australia's captain, entered the ongoing Mohali Test advocating an avoidance of controversy.

"I've said how important it is for the international game that this series is played in the right spirit. There's enough negativity around the world at the moment about international cricket that we have to do the best we can in this series to ensure that people want to watch the game again," he said on Test eve.u00a0

The timing of Ponting's words couldn't have come at a worse time, considering what transpired yesterday. After scoring a fluent 71, Ponting was trudging past the Indian huddle, when he stopped and turned. Zaheer was handing him a mouthful, propelling Ponting to use his bat to point at the bowler, who was pulled back by his skipper.

Match referee Chris Broad summoned Zaheer at the end of the day's play, but there was no official caution or fine imposed. Shane Watson, who scored a century amidst all the drama, put the blame squarely at the feet of the Indian new-ball bowler. "Zaheer escalated things a lot more than what should have really happened," he said.

"He's (Ponting) not going to go looking for a fight unless someone steps out of line. Zaheer got out of the huddle and had a bit to say and that's what everyone was able to see." A senior Indian cricketer wanted to know from this correspondent as to what had been said by the Australian camp at the press conference. "They batted so slowly.

They don't know how to bat on a flat pitch," the Indian player said.
There's nine days of Test cricket left in this series and the war of words has only just begin.