In an unusually personal attack, Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting today questioned the sportsmanship of batting legend Sunil Gavaskar and ridiculed the Indian team’s performance in recent years.Provoked by Gavaskar’s comment that Australia were an “unpopular team” because of their on-field behaviour, Ponting told Australian journalists in the West Indies: “We all know the way he played his cricket, don’t we? If he is talking about us, what about the way India have played their cricket over the last few years?”Ponting said it was natural that Australia’s domination for more than a decade invited a variety of criticism while other teams and captains like Gavaskar always smarted from their defeats.“I don’t know if there are too many popular winners. If you are really dominating teams for a long period of time, I don’t think you end up having too many supporters around the place,” the Aussie skipper said.“I don’t mind if ‘Mr Perfect’ comes out and goes on about our team. I know we are all not perfect. We are not going to keep everyone happy 100 per cent of the time.”Mentioning India’s miserable Test record last year when they won just three of their 12 Tests, Ponting said Gavaskar would do well to look at his own team whose development programme he has been part of at various levels. “I know who I would rather be going to watch. Have a look at how many Test matches they have won,” he said. “He has been a big part of that, he has been a selector and he has been on the coaching committee. They might want to start to look at the way they play their own cricket rather than looking at us,” Ponting said.Ponting reminded the former Indian captain that he had nearly walked out of a Test match in protest against an umpire’s decision. “For him to go on about behaviour, not too many captains have dragged their teams off the field either.”Gavaskar dragged his opening partner Chetan Chauhan from the MCG during a Test in 1981 after the master batsman had fallen to a contentious umpiring decision. The pair made it to the boundary line before Chauhan was ordered back to the middle by the team manager.Gavaskar, writing in a magazine column, had said Australia, despite being the world champions, were not liked by many because of their on-field behaviour.Ponting said his team’s behaviour had been “reasonable” in recent times. “I have probably been reported more than anybody since I became captain. It’s something we pay a lot of attention to,” he said.
