Cricket war: Ponting writes, Gavaskar writhes

NOT A LITTLE MATTER: Sunil Gavaskar dismisses Australian captain's statement.

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New Delhi: Sunil Gavaskar has dimissed Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting's outburst against him as an attempt by the Aussie skipper to divert attention from their performance in the recently concluded Test series in India.

"Ponting and Cricket Australia were still in denial of their on-field behaviour," Gavaskar told CNN-IBN.

The former India captain said Ponting was seven years old when the MCG incident happened and that he did not know the background of the incident.

Ponting had lashed out at Gavaskar in his Captain's Diary 2008.

"I still have a vivid image of Sunil Gavaskar angrily trying to take his opening partner off the MCG with him in 1981 when he was given out lbw in a Test match, but to hear him today you'd think he was positively angelic when he was the best opening batsman in the world," he wrote.

Ponting said he was disappointed by the hypocrisy of former cricketers who never kept the standards in their hey-days but were demanding the same from his team.

Ponting also took a dig at former Indian captain Anil Kumble, saying his comment 'only one team was playing within the spirit of the game' after the Sydney Test was borrowed from a former Australian skipper Bill Woodfull.