Melbourne, Nov 4 : Former Australia captain Mark Taylor has said that current skipper Ricky Ponting should have known better than to become embroiled in an ugly on-field spat with Brett Lee.

Ponting and Lee were involved in a heated exchange during the second Test against India when the pacer was not given a bowl on the fourth morning of the match.

Australia maintained the reason for overlooking Lee was because of a slow over rate, but it was clear Ponting, who even turned to the rarely used medium pace of Mike Hussey, had lost confidence in his spearhead, who has struggled through the entire campaign.

Taylor, now a Cricket Australia board director, said the Australian skipper should have shown greater discretion.

"Ricky could have handled it better away from the cameras and not in front of everyone," Taylor said.

"Knowing Ricky and Brett I don't think that (incident) is going to cause a rift in the side. It's not easy when you play the game the way he has played it all his life and having your say and then switching that off.

"Ricky is very passionate and a good captain, but it's not a great look for a side when something like that happens," FOX Sports quoted Taylor, as saying.

Taylor was the master at maintaining a poker face on the field even when emotions were running high.

Speaking about the incident, Lee said that the issue had been "blown out of proportion."

ANI