The ball-tampering scandal hit the Australian cricket badly. Since that shaking incident, world cricket is raising the question of Australian cricket’s win-at-all-costs culture. However, the two-time World Cup winning captain Ricky Ponting has not felt that the Australian cricket culture is in any danger.
The ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town Test has dominated the cricket world in last two weeks. That incident suffered hugely the Australian cricket as the captain Steven Smith and vice-captain David Warner have been suspended for one year from the international and domestic cricket by Cricket Australia (CA). 25-years old Australian opening batsman Cameron Bancroft also received the nine months suspension from the international and domestic cricket.
In the addition, Warner will never be able to lead the national side again while Smith and Bancroft will have to wait one more year after the end of their suspensions to able for leading the national side once again.
After the completion of the South Africa tour, Australian head coach Darren Lehmann also stepped down from the role. While world cricket is criticizing Australia’s win-at-all-costs culture, former Australian world cup winning captain Ricky Ponting doesn’t think same at all.
The current Delhi Daredevils head coach, Ricky Ponting has first time spoke about that controversial incident in the front of media.
Ponting said on that, “The cultural issue for me is really an interesting thing. Because if we wind the clock back just a couple of months, when Australia won the Ashes like they did, there was no talks about cultural problems or issues whatsoever. I honestly feel on this occasion the cultural stuff that’s been spoken about has probably been blown out of proportion to a certain degree.”
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Ponting was shocked with that ball-tampering incident.
Talking about that, the former Australian captain said, “As a past player and past captain, I was quite shocked to see what actually took place out on the field.”
He further added, “The pleasing thing for me is that now it seems the issue is starting to come to an end. We hear this morning that David Warner also accepted his sanction, means all three guys have accepted the sanctions before them.”
Speaking of the reactions in the country after that incident, where several sides were demanding for the tough punishments for the tainted cricketers, Ponting claimed that the public felt the players had not played the game in a fair way.
Ponting said on that, “As Australians, we like to play the game hard, we like to play the game fair. Fans expect the Australian player to play that way. I think the reaction back in Australia was as big as it was because the Australian public felt the Australian players had not played the game in a fair way.”
While the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) has raised the question on the CA’s suspensions for the three tainted Aussie cricketers, three of them accepted those punishments. Ponting said that the CA’s punishments were important for the world cricket.
He quoted, “There’s a very big picture there for the world game’s sake and Cricket Australia, I think, have reacted to what the world game pretty much demanded. The world game and the Australian public demanded that these players were dealt with and treated in a certain way.”
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Ponting also believes that the Australian cricket team will get over from the tough period soon and will start rebuilding the team.
The 43-years old said, “It’s a good thing for cricket in Australia… Now that the test series is over, the guys have got a few weeks to get away from it all and then start rebuilding what has sort of collapsed for them over the last couple of weeks.”
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