Related Link : ICC Champions Trophy 2006 : Damien Martyn : Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting has finally apologized to the BCCI President Sharad Pawar for his actions during the Prize Distribution Ceremony of the ICC Champions Trophy. Cricket Australia has also apologized on behalf of its team through a formal letter to Mr.Pawar.
Mr.Pawar who initially downplayed the incidents had later called the actions of Ponting and Martyn as ‘uncivilized’. Captured live by television cameras, Ricky Ponting was seen gesturing to Mr.Pawar to hand away the Trophy and later as the Aussies got together to lay their hands on the trophy for the photographs, Damien Martyn had rudely pushed aside Mr.Pawar forcing him to clear off from the picture. The Indian media had taken a serious note of this and had accused the Aussies of being the worst behaving Champs. Protests were taken out by Mr.Pawar’s followers who even went to the extent of painting Damien Martyn’s name on a donkey! Sharad Pawar is not just the BCCI President but also the Union Agricultural Minister and the President of the Nationalist Congress Party.
The Australians have said that they didn’t mean any offence to the BCCI President and it was just in their excitement of having won the Champions Trophy for the first time that such things might have happened. According to the CEO of Cricket Australia, James Sutherland “there are things that happen in cricket from time to time that you don’t necessarily agree with or aren’t absolutely comfortable with. Life goes on. It’s unfortunate that there has been an interpretation of disrespect from that.” According to the BCCI, the matter is now closed forever.