Ricky Ponting has warned his teammates to be extra careful about their behaviour on the cricket field as it might look worse than it actually is from the sidelines.
"Some of those things don't look very good from the sidelines and us, as players need to understand they can look worse from the sidelines than they might be on the field," Ponting said, referring to some exchanges during the drawn third cricket Test against India at the Ferozeshah Kotla.
The match, which started with heated exchanges between Gautam Gambhir, Shane Watson and Simon Katich, also saw Mitchell Johnson irking VVS Laxman on the fifth and final day.
Ponting defended Johnson, saying "There was no real malice from anything Mitchell had to say.
"It was about some of the comments that VVS had made in the newspapers, to tell the truth. That was all he was talking about. The umpires spoke to me and said it happened three times in the over, I think, and it wasn't acceptable. So I spoke to Mitchell at the break and that was it."
Despite the regular incidents, Ponting said they were not a result of Australia's frustration at the inability to break through India.
"I'd like to think those things aren't getting to us on the field," he said. "We've got a pretty clear job to do."
