Ponting critical of crowd behaviour in final tie

MUMBAI: Cut up at the boorish crowd behaviour at the Wankhede Stadium, Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting hoped it would not be repeated when they clash with India in the one-off Twenty20 tie on Saturday.

The visiting skipper was particularly concerned at the heckling of his star all rounder Andrew Symonds, who had complained of racial abuse during the fifth ODI of the seven-match series at Vadodara on October 11.

"Action has been taken as well and a few members of the crowd were taken away from the ground. I am not sure what has happened over the last two days. Some of the stuff that went on were totally unnecessary leaving a bad taste. I hope it's not repeated at the Twenty20 game," he said after his team's narrow two-wicket loss to the hosts in the last tie.

"Sections of the crowd in different parts of the world are different and it's part and parcel of the game, I guess. That part of it we understand, but it's still unacceptable. It's happened to him (Symonds) here again for the second time. He's disappointed," Ponting said after the seventh and final ODI on Wednesday night.

Australia won the series 4-2 after the opening game at Bangalore was washed out on September 29, but could not keep the home under the thumb on Wednesday and India made a dramatic recovery to escape from the brink at 64 for six in 20 overs, chasing 194, and scored a consolation victory.

The two teams now clash in the T20 clash at the Brabourne Stadium on October 20 in a repeat of their high-profile semi final contest in the World T20 championship in South Africa won by the Indian team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

India went on to beat Pakistan in the final. 

Incidentally, the loutish elements in the crowd were letting loose their verbal abuses at the tourists' player even as Cricket Board President Sharad Pawar and his Australian counterpart Creagh O'Connor were preparing a joint statement condemning racist taunts in cricket.

Asserting that racism has no place in cricket, the two administrators issued a joint statement, vowing to stand by the International Cricket Council's Anti-Racism Code.

In the joint statement, Pawar did not confirm the veracity of Symonds' claims of racial slur but only joined O'Connor to say that racism has no place, on or off the field in cricket.

They said racism was not confined to any particular country but was a global problem.

"Cricket crowds in all cricket nations are often noisy and boisterous, which is part of the fun of cricket," they said.

"But all cricket nations have to be on guard to ensure that the fun does not cross the boundary into unacceptable behaviour.

After Pawar announced that BCCI would look into the complaint, the local media here dubbed his comments as 'backdown by the BCCI', pointing out that the Board had initially refused to acknowledge the incident in Vadodara.

According to media reports, Match Referee Chris Broad has written to the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirming racial comments were indeed hurled by the crowd during the fifth match at Vadodara.

Symonds and the entire Australian team are miffed with the Indian crowd and skipper Ricky Ponting too lashed out at Wednesday's hostile spectators at the Wankhede Stadium after the match which the visitors lost by two wickets.

"Some of the other stuff that went on was totally unnecessary. I just hope that it does not happen again at another cricket venue that I play in because it leaves a bad taste in everybody's mouth," Ponting said.

The daily also admitted that reports of an Australian cameraman capturing racial crowd behaviour during the Nagpur one-dayer was actually a rumour.