Aussies trying to sell their books: Sunny

Kanpur: Sunil Gavaskar has hit back at Ricky Ponting's comments. Ponting, while referring to Gavaskar's infamous "walk-out" at the MCG in 1981, had said the Indian legend wasn't an angel himself in his playing days.

Sunil Gavaskar: I don't look angelic, so I can't claim to be angelic. But I think Ricky Ponting must have been about seven years old when he talks about seeing that incident. But while he saw that incident I don't think he heard what had happened and the background to it.

If he has a look at the video he will find that I'm leaving the crease, going towards the dressing room, and I've turned back. That's when I tried to take Chetan Chauhan off. That happened only because I was abused. That's the reason I have been saying that abuse can be equal to all kinds of things, if you saw that happening with Gautam Gambhir.

The next day I realised what I had done was not right. I accepted it, I regretted the incident publicly at a press conference.

But the point is, Ricky Ponting and Cricket Australia are still in denial about their behaviour and the kind of language they use on the field. Unless and until they realise it's not making them popular or winning them friends, that's going to keep happening.

Now even Daniel Vettori has gone on record saying things about how overtly aggressive they are, and while banter was acceptable, I think it's the foul language that creates problems between teams as we have seen. I think it's something that they need to address very quickly.

CNN-IBN: Do you think the Australians are probably trying to divert attention from their performance in India?

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