MELBOURNE: Deeply hurt by the criticism from Allan Border and Ian Chappell in the Nagpur Test over-rate controversy, Ricky Ponting says he is in no mood to break the ice with the former captains.
Among the torrent of criticism over Ponting's decision to use part-timers instead of his best bowlers to speed up the team's slow over-rate in Nagpur, Ponting was cut deepest by that from Chappell and Border.
The pair believed Ponting had put himself ahead of the team's cause by bowling part-timers to ensure he wouldn't be suspended for the first Test against New Zealand at the Gabba.
"I haven't spoken to either of those two gentlemen and probably won't for a while I wouldn't have thought," Ponting said at a pre-Test luncheon in Brisbane.
"I don't mind anyone questioning tactics of mine but the thing that worried me the most over this whole issue was the fact that everybody seemed to be saying I was putting myself ahead of the team and I thought that was a bit unfair because anyone who knows me would say otherwise," he was quoted as saying by 'Fox Sports'.
Ponting also said the International Cricket Council and Test playing nations needed to prioritise Test cricket's place in the international calendar.
He feared for the future of the five-day game with the rise of Twenty20 cricket, which has eaten into the calendar for Tests.
"I think something has to give," Ponting said over the growth of new Twenty20 tournaments across the world.
"There's just not enough time in the calendar to fit everything in. I'm a bit old-school in my thoughts about the game but Test cricket is the purest form of the game and the one I enjoy most."
