The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Ponting lashes out at Sreesanth

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Ponting lashes out at Sreesanth

— Photo: AFP

Ricky Ponting.

Melbourne: A furious Ricky Ponting has labelled fresh charges against Sreesanth claiming that he sledged batsmen from the boundary line during the fourth ODI at Chandigarh.

Ponting claimed Sreesanth had passed remarks and taunted five batsmen as they stepped in and out of the dressing room and wondered how he escaped punishment from the match referee for such acts of indiscipline.

Sreesanth, who was not in the playing eleven, reportedly clapped his hands in Andrew Symonds’s face as the all-rounder was leaving the field and said Australia would lose.

“It happened probably four or five times the other day when we lost wickets; him running past somebody coming off the ground. But what can you do about it if the authorities aren’t going to do anything about it?”

“It was disappointing to see that happening the other day. He (Sreesanth) chirped me out to bat as well. I snapped my head back around,” Ponting was quoted as saying in the Herald Sun.

“I got a chance to ask him about it and got him one-on-one when he ran a drink out later. He said he was talking to someone else. It was someone who is not playing the game, so you don’t even get a chance to get revenge on them,” he said.

No action taken

The Australian skipper is furious that the Indian seamer has not been punished.

Match Referee Chris Broad said he was unaware of any incidents involving Sreesanth and action would not be taken, the daily reported.

“Nothing seems to be happening about it,” Ponting said.

Ponting even warned Sreesanth to mend his ways or be prepared to face the Australian response in the upcoming return Test and one-day series.

“He is doing it for a response, but when our guys get our backs up, that is when our best cricket comes out.

“We have got a few months of cricket coming up against (them). If he gets picked he will be a big part of that,” he added.

The Kerala seamer came for some harsh words from former Australian captain Ian Chappell as well. Chappell slated him as a “slow learner who risks sinking in a sea of fines.”

“Sreesanth could well finish his career with a bank balance that’s exactly the same as when he started his career, if he keeps going the way he is,” Chappell said. — PTI

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