Ricky Ponting slams irrelevant talk of 'ugly Aussies' for once-a-10-year incident

Ricky Ponting slams irrelevant talk of 'ugly Aussies' for once-a-10-year incident

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Ricky Ponting has stated that even though Australian players have been involved with some of the other controversies, the culture of the team has always been very strong. He also mentioned that other Australian achievements are sidelined due to certain wrong incidents and the culture is misjudged.

Australian cricketers Steven Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner were suspended by Cricket Australia for the ball tampering incident that took place in the second test match against South Africa in Cape Town. English all-rounder Moeen Ali has also mentioned in his autobiography that he was racially abused by some of the Australian players during 2015 Ashes. Joe Root was attacked by David Warner at a Walkout Bar in 2013. Even when Ricky Ponting was the skipper, certain players were involved in a few on-field spats. However, Ponting believes that the culture of the national team is very strong and people just sideline all their good deeds because of a few wrong incidents.

“We know the reason why a lot of that stuff started, don't we? A lot of stuff has been made about the culture of the team on the back of one issue from South Africa. There wasn't anything spoken about the culture of the team before that, really. We know where it started. I have been around the team a lot - not a lot but a fair bit - since the Australian summer last year with the T20 triangular (series) and then the five one-dayers in England. The culture of the Australian cricket team has always been very, very good and very strong. Yes, there might have been a few little occasions where things got out of hand and over the top but the thing you have to remember about Australian cricket is you can do everything right for 10 years and then one have one little incident and all of a sudden it is back to the ugly Aussies again. Australian cricket has been fighting that trend and that label for 30 or 40 years.” told Sydney Morning Herald.

Ponting spoke largely of Australia's new coach and captain combination with Justin Langer and Tim Paine at the helm of the affairs. He believes that both of them shall nurture the team well and begin a new culture in order to lift the spirits of the players and fans all over. 

“But I can guarantee you. with Justin being in control and the people that he will have around him, and Tim Paine as captain, things will be vastly different going forward. As a spectator now, and the people you bump into in the street, people were starting to demand that things changed a little bit. That's the bottom line with it all. For an ex-Australian player and ex-Australian captain, I want the Australian cricket team to be the most-loved sporting team in the world, not just in Australia. I want to go down the street and have people say how much they are enjoying the team play. Hopefully, the success comes along with that. What I know, as I said, is that the right people are in the right places right now to make sure that happens,” Ponting concluded. 

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