 "Australian batting great Ricky Ponting has denied making a public comment on the Asia Cup, let alone the Indian team and the handshake saga. Image credit: AFP/AP")
There have been plenty of reactions to the Indian team’s refusal to shake hands with their Pakistani opponents at the end of their Asia Cup Group A match on Sunday, which has since snowballed into a massive controversy.
While the led Men in Blue have largely received praise from their supporters back home, with the captain going to the extent of saying that his team was aligned with the BCCI and the Government of India in their stance, there has been an outpouring of criticism from Pakistani fans as well as former cricketers.
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There aren’t too many neutral cricketing experts, ex-cricketers included, who have been weighing in on the topic. Social media users therefore, would have been surprised to say the least at seeing Australian batting legend and former captain Ricky Ponting’s name being associated with a comment that was critical of India’s gesture.
Especially since the comment described the world No 1 T20I team as a “big loser”.
“This match will be remembered forever with India as the big loser. The way the Pakistani team wanted to shake hands at the end has immortalised them as champions of the gentleman’s game with India as the perpetual loser,” Ponting had reportedly told Sky Sports in the viral quote.
The quote had been published by a Pakistan cricket fan page on Facebook in a post that has since been deleted.
‘Punter’ slams viral quote as fake
Ponting, however, broke his silence on social media on Tuesday and made it clear in a social media post that the quote that had been doing the rounds on social media is fake.
“I am aware of certain comments being attributed to me on social media. Please know that I categorically did not make those statements and indeed have made no public comment about the Asia Cup at all,” Ponting wrote on X.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe Australian legend is by no means the first ex-cricketer who has been targeted by fake quotes on social media, with former teammate Adam Gilchrist well as other cricketing greats such as Sunil Gavaskar, Nasser Hussain having had to post similar clarifications over false statements.
Ponting’s relationship with Indian cricket
Ponting had quite the love-hate relationship with Indian cricket fans during his playing days, primarily due to the Australian team’s domination of the sport during his tenure as captain in which they won the ICC World Cup twice (2003 and 2007).
What had made the Aussies an even bigger villain in the eyes on Indian cricket fans was their ruthless on-field sledging and other forms of gamesmanship and for their “win-at-all-costs” mentality.
‘Punter’ however, has become quite the popular figure in Indian cricket circles since he retired from the sport more than a decade ago and took up a career in commentary and coaching.
Ponting had built quite the close relationship with Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant during his six-year run as Delhi Capitals head coach, and – together with captain Shreyas Iyer – had helped Punjab Kings reach the Indian Premier League final in his first season in charge earlier this year.