We have seen it happen on field: Ricky Ponting on Kevin Pietersen's bullying claims

Ricky Ponting and Kevin Pietersen (R)

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has supported Kevin Pietersen’s claims saying that he himself has seen England senior players bullying their teammates on the field on quite a few occasions.

Pietersen, in his recently released book KP: The Autobiography, has said that there was a sense of fear in the dressing room because of the authority that was given to the likes of Graeme Swann, James Anderson, and, in particular, Matt Prior.

Ponting said: “We saw them doing it. James Anderson was always the same, and Graeme Swann – the pointing of fingers and you’d hear a few expletives if there was a misfield or a dropped catch.

“The guys who were doing it were the so-called leaders. That’s where the captain has got to come in, not wait and let little things turn into big things. That’s what it sounds like has happened in this England team.”

The Tasmanian, who led Australia to two World Cup triumphs, said that the Australians were also hoping to exploit that weakness, before adding that they eventually succeeded in doing it, as well.

He said: “They had a lot of very good players that were able to achieve a lot of success as a team,” said the Tasmanian, who was also skipper when Australia whitewashed England in 2006/7.

“But if you could just get inside of them and start pulling them apart, we always had a feeling they would implode pretty quickly and that’s what’s happened over the past 12 months.

“I wasn’t surprised with Jonathan Trott leaving the Ashes tour, I wasn’t surprised with Swann retiring when he did – when the ship started to go down, he jumped off pretty quickly – and now all the Pietersen stuff.”