Team India tired of Kangaroo's painful tacts: Soni

Hobart, Feb 26 (UNI) Team India lodged an official complaint to Match Referee Jeff Crowe about Australia's ''provoking'' behaviour during their Commonwealth Bank tri-series match in Sydney.

India last night lodged a complaint against the provocative tactics of Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds, claiming that while batting at the SCG, Hayden continually labelled off-spinner Harbhajan Singh a ''mad boy''.

Indian team manager Vimal Soni said he had considered approaching International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive Malcolm Speed, who was forced to intervene in last month's racial row between Harbhajan and Symonds.

''We could have filed another complaint, but we didn't want to start another hearing,'' Soni said. ''Instead, we made the match referee aware the Australians provoked our players in the last two matches and cited specific instances, which is not good for our players.'' Harbhajan and skipper M S Dhoni made a complaint to umpires Daryl Harper and Tony Hill while Hayden and Ponting shared their 110-run stand.

Soni said his team was tired of Australia's verbal warfare.

''Much has happened in the recent past and we didn't want to open up old wounds by making a complaint against the Australians.

But we have mentioned specific incidents in the letter to the match referee,'' he said.

Soni said Symonds, who has jumped from one controversy to another this summer, was to blame for the ugly scenes with Sharma.

''Our plea was Symonds provoked Ishant and that's why he did what he did,'' Soni said.

''The match referee has promised he would have a word with the Australian captain on the matter.'' However, Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting had labelled the incident a ''minor altercation'' while defending Symonds.

''He said in response to what was said to him. He didn't start the incident,'' Ponting said.

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