Ponting's senseless pot-stirring

When a winning side loses the lacquer of invincibility, the result can be a very heavy fall to earth. Australian cricket is undergoing such a period of transformation, and the pressure is doubtless felt by all the players. After a tough series against the South Africans, the New Zealanders arrived to Australia to contest the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, and the first match, though a close affair, went the way of the visitors.

Ponting's comments are at odds with what happened - photo ervine_wa

The game was punctuated by an incident in which Neil Broom was clean bowled by Michael Clarke. Innocuous at first, replays suddenly showed that the wicket had been broken by the gloves of the wicketkeeper Brad Haddin. Not out, then – not that the umpires noticed it, nor did Haddin mention it. In the heat of a close game these things happen, and casting judgment should be done only with great caution.

To see the incident, click this link on to Youtube.

So, clear enough that it was against the rules then? It's little wonder that in a game which was decided only on the final ball that Daniel Vettori was just a little bit irked by the moment, as was mentioned in the report from Yahoo:

"I think you saw from Haddin's reaction that he knew something was wrong so he probably should have made more noise about it."

Haddin didn't much like that suggestion, and said as much. Cricinfo reported his comments as below:

“I'm pretty disappointed in Dan that he didn't have the decency to come and speak to me after the game if he had an issue with it rather than air his thoughts in a press conference," Haddin told AAP. "I think the polite or the decent thing to do would be to come and ask me. He's played a lot of cricket now and he knows too well what happens with these situations, so I thought it was a bit low. I think it's quite poor."

He said he was unaware at the time that his hands were ahead of the wickets. "After looking at the replay, my hands were in front of the stumps," he said. "But the ball, I'm 100% positive, hit the bails first and then came up into my gloves."

It's neither low nor poor, Brad – it looks very suspicious, and while he could have approached you about it directly, the burden of apology really ought be on your shoulders. Of course, no apology arises, and instead the second paragraph is an inexplicable defence. Having watched the replay, the gloves are in the wrong place, take the bails off, and the ball might or might have hit the stumps had it followed its trajectory – we don't know because the gloves are in the wrong place.

Ricky Ponting, who'd decided it was time to talk to Andrew Symonds after multiple disciplinary incidents recently, demonstrates his leadership skills once more by defending Haddin without having seen the footage:

Ponting spoke before he had seen a replay but challenged Vettori to be sure of his Haddin criticism. "It's a bit much, he's basically claiming [Haddin's] a cheat, isn't he? That's a bit strong unless they're 100% certain.

"We'll wait and see. If [a replay] does show anything that Brad is in the clear, I'll certainly be letting Daniel know about it. It's probably worth Haddin having a chat to him as well. He's basically had a bit of a crack at Haddin's make-up."

Haddin told Ponting the ball had hit the top of off stump. "The umpire gave it out and the batsman walked off, and the next I heard of it was when I was asked about it at the end of play," Ponting said. "[Haddin] obviously didn't know, because if he knew then he wouldn't have claimed it. Whatever we're saying about Brad Haddin here, you can't say that knowingly happened, that is for sure."

You also can't say didn't knowingly happen either, that's for sure... And the replay only stirs the issue further. It's worth a look before suggesting that you'll take it up with the opposing captain. One might have thought that the matter would end in one of Haddin or Ponting saying something along the lines of “Really sorry about that – not meant deliberately, but I can see why you'd think it looks suspect”, but instead, Ponting explains there's been an apology from the New Zealand camp, say TVNZ:

"I honestly think Brad has done nothing wrong. It was interesting getting off the plane here the other day, he got an apology via text message from Daniel," Ponting said.

Well, it might not make sense, but at least it would draw a line under the incident; if only it weren't a fictional apology, that is, as the same report indicates:

When told of Ponting's quote the New Zealand camp were incredulous. Vettori wasn't available for comment but he was understood to be annoyed, as he hadn't offered Haddin an apology and felt none was required.

New Zealand manager Lindsay Crocker confirmed Vettori and Haddin had exchanged amicable texts and clarified the situation, but had agreed to disagree.

"We've agreed both sides have a different version of events, we should put the matter behind us and it was nothing personal," Crocker told said [sic].