Ponting furious with damp practice pitches

Ponting furious with damp practice pitchesNew Delhi, Oct 30 : Australian captain Ricky Ponting was livid seeing the practice pitches damp when his team arrived at Ferozeshah Kotla for nets Friday morning.

Ponting made no secret of his displeasure at the pitches provided for practice.

"I'm very disappointed," said Ponting.

"It seems everybody in the world other than the groundsman knew that we were going to train at 9 am."

"We only had one training day. To turn up and have the wickets completely unplayable is disappointing. I'm sure by the time the Indians get out here this afternoon the wickets will be fine.

"So it's a bit of a disadvantage for us."

The ground staff apparently told the Australian skipper that they were not informed that the visitors would show up so early in the morning.

"We were expecting them in the afternoon. But only one of the wicket was bit moist and they used the other strips," one of the staff told IANS.

When Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was told about the incident, he quipped: "One day of practice would not make much of a difference."(IANS)