5 of the worst fights from past India-Australia clashes

#4 When Ponting turned umpire

Ponting telling Sourav Ganguly that he had to walk back to the pavilion

As if the monkey-gate controversy wasn’t enough, the Sydney Test was marred by yet another dispute, while India was batting. Sourav Ganguly was looking ominous after mustering a half-century and had the Aussie attack by the scruff of the neck.

Soon after reaching his half-century, ‘Dada’ was foxed by an out-swinger by Brett Lee that went straight into the hands of Michael Clarke, standing in slips. Replays revealed that the catch wasn’t quite a clean one, but Ricky Ponting thought otherwise.

He was pretty sure that the catch was clean and hence raised his index finger to give his decision for the outside edge. Ganguly, afterwards, slammed Ponting by mincing no words in saying that it’s the umpire’s duty to give a verdict and not the Australian skipper’s.

Even Anil Kumble slammed Ponting and his boys by remarking that “only one team had played in the spirit of the game”.