Ponting hits back

NAGPUR.
Australia cricket captain Ricky Ponting said it was his box, employed to protect a batsman’s most sensitive area, and not his bat which damaged a World Cup dressing room television set.
Ponting accepted an International Cricket Council reprimand after he reacted angrily to being run out in his team’s 91-run win over Zimbabwe in Ahmedabad on Monday.
But he insisted yesterday that the incident had been blown wildly out of proportion.
“Just to clarify, the television wasn’t hit by me with my bat at all, it was hit by my box that I’d thrown down at the end of cricket kit,” said Ponting, ahead of his team’s clash against New Zealand today.
“I’m not sure where a lot of those stories have come from but I have accepted what the ICC have come up with as far as a reprimand is concerned from the incident.
“There was some small damage to the TV set and I went and reported it to the team manager straight away. They actually replaced the television set there and then.
“Some of the stories I have been hearing the last couple of days have been a little bit different to what the list of events actually were.
“Hopefully we can put this all behind us and start worrying about a big game of cricket. There’s a limit I guess (to how much) you can let off steam in a dressing room. It is a pretty sacred sort of place in international cricket.
“But there’s a line you can’t over-step. I accept responsibility for that happening, albeit by total accident and with no malice involved whatsoever.
“What’s happened has happened, I’d like to be able to take it back but I can’t.”
As far as today’s match is concerned, Australia, despite their overwhelming win against Zimbabwe, found batting tricky when left-arm spinner Ray Price took the new ball.
Ponting said his side were ready for more of the same from either Vettori, also a slow left-armer, or off-break bowler Nathan McCullum.
“We know New Zealand will probably have two good spinners in their side and we know as tournament goes on we are going to have to play spin well if we want to be there when the big games come around. I’ve got total confidence in the players that they can all do that.” – AFP.