Ponting fears Aussies' Sydney milestones would be 'tainted'

Melbourne (PTI) - Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Monday said if the match-fixing slur on his team’s Sydney Test win over Pakistan is proved right, all individual milestones by his players in that game would be “tainted“.

Reacting to the claims by a bookie Mazhar Majeed, who was arrested and later released on bail in London following a sting operation that implicated seven Pakistani players including skipper Salman Butt, Ponting said he has been left stunned.

But the Aussie skipper insisted that he never suspected anything fishy during the 36-run win over Pakistan in January in a match, which saw nine wickets of the visiting side fall for 89 runs.

“Not at the time, no, I had no idea about anything like that at all,” Ponting told ‘ABC Radio’

“The way we won was one of the more satisfying moments that I’ve had on the cricket field. And now when some of these things come to light is when you start to slightly doubt some of the things that have happened. It’s not up to us to worry about that anyway,” he added.

But after the sting, Ponting said he fears the individual efforts by his players to notch that unlikely win would stand tainted.

“The thing that I’m most worried about if any of this is proven to be true is some of the individual performances that took place in that game,” he said.

“You look at Mike Hussey’s second innings hundred and Peter Siddle’s batting and the way he was with Mike Hussey that day and Nathan Hauritz taking five wickets on the final day to win us the game.

“All of those individual milestones will be tainted as well,” he added.

The sting operation, which allegedly exposes the nexus between bookies and Pakistani players such as pacers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal has taken the cricket world by storm.

The players in question have had their phones and passports confiscated in London after the Scotland Yard launched an investigation.