Warne criticises Ponting

Bengaluru: Captains of sub-continent teams are very often criticised by their former players when they lose matches. Very rarely has it happened to the Australian team, but after their big defeat to India in Bengaluru their skipper Ricky Ponting came in for severe criticism from legendary leg spinner Shane Warne.

Ponting reacted angrily to the comments made by Warne after the match. A disappointed Ponting, who had tried to keep a smile on his face, despite one of the biggest defeats of his career, lost his cool when asked about Warne’s comments on his tactics, especially the use of spinner Nathan Hauritz during the match.
 

Credit: Radio2

After Hauritz was hit for 22 runs in two over, Warne tweeted “How the hell can Hauritz bowl to this field. Feeling for Hauritz, terrible. What are these tactics? Sorry Ricky, what are you doing? With the wicket up and down and spinning big, tactics and backing bowlers are crucial”.

When asked about his comments, Ponting, who has played with Warne for many years, said: “Every field Nathan (Hauritz) had, was as per his request. That’s the field he wants to bowl with, unfortunately it doesn’t appear that Shane would take his time to ask anyone about it; he has his opinion out in the public at the moment. It’s a personal opinion, I guess.”

Ponting went on to add: “The thing about international cricket is that different people say different things at different times. We don’t agree with all of them. There is no doubt that we will face some criticism having lost, it would have been nice if he was more informed before making such comments”.