Ponting's men are totally uncivilised: Pawar

Sydney, Nov 9: Though he played down the pushing and shoving incident on the Champions Trophy prize distribution dais in order to maintain good relations with Cricket Australia (CA), BCCI President Sharad Pawar didn't mince words as he described Ricky Ponting's team as ''totally uncivilised''.

Though the incident drew an angry reaction from former and current players, besides political parties, Mr Pawar has been playing down the incident so far but the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' quoted the Union Agriculture Minister as saying that Ponting's team was totally uncivilised.

''I will not react to this other than to say it was totally uncivilised,'' Mr Pawar was quoted as saying.

''This is not good at all, but I have decided to play it down because we have an extremely good relationship with the Australian board and we would like for that to keep going,'' he explained.

In an ugly incident in Mumbai, Ponting was seen tapping the BCCI President to vacate the dais, while teammate Damien Martyn sort of nudged the Minister out of the stage.

''Those players were not allowed to come onto the dais. It was only suppose to be the captain. Certainly I would accept an apology because then we could close this chapter. The Australian board is headed by a respected and civilised man and our relationship is extremely good. If they apologise, it would be a good signal to the people in this country,'' Mr Pawar elaborated.

He, however, refused to further pursue the matter, saying he was keen to have an excellent relationship between BCCI and CA.

But the relation seems strained a bit in recent times and, apart from the shoving incident, CA has the impression that it was the Asian bloc's bid that saw Australia's controversial umpire Darrell Hair being banned from officiating in international matches involving ICC Full Members.

CA chief executive James Sutherland, however, hopes that such incidents won't strain the relation between the board and he vouched that it was not an intended insult by Ponting's men in Mumbai.

Attributing it as something which can happen when people of different cultures meet, Mr Sutherland said it was clearly a case of misunderstand.

Both Mr Sutherland and Ponting have offered to apologise for the incident even though Mr Pawar said he was not aware of any such development.

UNI

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