Shocked to see what took place on the field: Ponting

It was coming and everyone knew it. He had been with Delhi Daredevils for a week now, concentrating only on the team's cricketing activities.

So when coach Ricky Ponting finally spoke to the media before the team departed for its IPL opener, the former Australia captain could only grin when he was asked about the recent ball-tampering incident involving the Australians during the South Africa Test series.

While he backed the sanctions on those involved and sought to reiterate the entire ‘play hard, play fair’ idea of Australian sports, Ponting also rejected the idea that it was a ‘cultural issue’ and felt it was being blown out of proportion.

“This is the first time I have actually answered a single question about whatever happened in South Africa over the last couple of weeks. As a past player and captain, I was quite shocked to see what took place on the field,” Ponting admitted.

“If you think it was big news here, it was astronomical, just how big an issue it was back in Australia and rightly so.

“We, as Australians, like to play our game hard, we like to play our game fair and our fans expect us to play that way.

“The reaction back in Australia was as big as it was because I think the Australian public believed the players had not played the game in a fair way,” he said.

Asked about how he would have reacted to it all, Ponting dismissed it as “hypothetical” but did feel the sanctions were too harsh.

“There is a big picture for the world game's sake and Cricket Australia have reacted pretty much what the world game demanded and the Australian public demanded.

“It would appear that 12-month bans were severe, if you think back on what the ICC sanction was (one match for Steve Smith and nothing for the other two),” he said before Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua interrupted, restricting any further questions on the issue.