Australia captain Ricky Ponting has publicly apologised for showing dissent to Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf in Tuesday's one-day international against West Indies in Malaysia. A remorseful Ponting issued a statement saying he would also issue a personal apology to Rauf for his actions.
"Having had the opportunity to sleep on the incident I know I made a serious error of judgement," he said in a statement. "I regret the approach I made to Umpire Asad Rauf and realise I shouldn't have behaved in the way I did."
Ponting was fined his full match fee after pleading guilty to a charge of breaching the International Cricket Council's (ICC) strict code of conduct. Ponting questioned Rauf's judgement when the Pakistani called a wide against Shane Watson in the 33rd over of the West Indian innings.
Australia won the match by 78 runs but Ponting, who was found guilty of a similar against Bangladesh in April, was stripped of his match fee at a post-game hearing in Kuala Lumpur. The incident comes at a time when the ICC is resisting calls to strip umpires of their powers in the wake of the ball-tampering row involving Pakistan and Australian umpire Darrell Hair.
The Pakistan Cricket Board wants the ICC to take action against Hair but Australian officials have publicly backed their own man, with Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland revealing he had personally contacted the umpire to say he supported him. Several senior Australian players also spoke out in support of Hair, arguing that all players should abide by the umpire's decision.
The ICC has called on players world-wide to embrace the traditional 'sprit of cricket' and the Australian players haved backed the proposal after addressing the issue of their own on-field behaviour at a training camp in Queensland last month.
"International cricket matches are passionate affairs but as the captain of the Australian cricket team, I understand it's my responsibility to uphold the spirit of the game and I know that through my actions last night I let myself and my team down," Ponting said.
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