Ponting seeks to play India series in right spirit

Australian captain Ricky Ponting said Sunday he was hopeful next month's four-Test cricket series with India will be played in the right spirit.

The 15-man Australian squad left here late Sunday with only four players armed with Test match experience in India.

The nations were embroiled in an acrimonious series in Australia this year with Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh banned for three matches for allegedly racially abusing Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds during the second Test in Sydney in January.

The suspension was later overturned following an appeal hearing, but the relations between the two sides deteriorated as senior Australian batsman Matthew Hayden called Harbhajan an "obnoxious weed" on radio during the subsequent one-day series.

Ponting said a number of major issues would be discussed by the teams during the traditional pre-series referees meeting and he was hopeful next month's matches would be played in the right spirit.

"There's been a very healthy rivalry between India and Australia in one-day and Test cricket and our last few Test encounters have been very good and some very close results," Ponting told reporters before the team's departure.

"Hopefully, this is another great series played in the right spirit."

Ponting said although he had security concerns on his mind in the wake of a suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed 53 people and wounded 266 in neighbouring Pakistan, he expressed no reservations about security issues in India.

But Ponting admitted security was on his mind as he said farewell to his wife and baby daughter.

"I've done it all day today, I've had a lot of discussions with my wife today about those exact issues," Ponting said.

"Our advice was not to go to Pakistan and the advice that we received the last few weeks to tour India has been positive."

Ponting said he was determined to address his own poor record in India, having scored only one 50 in 14 Test innings there and averaging just 12 as opposed to his career mark of 58.

"I've had a couple of disappointing Test series (in India). In 2001, I made next to no runs," Ponting said. "The last series over there that we won, I broke my thumb and missed the first three Tests and came back for the last one, and that was the only one we lost.

"It's certainly a void in my cricket resume in India and I'm obviously hoping to rectify that over the next six or seven weeks."

Ponting said the series represented a great challenge for Australia's cricketers.

"There's no doubt they (India) have got a lot more experience than we have going into this series," he said. "But I think we made too much of the conditions in India a lot of the time before we get there. "I think quite often the less that you talk about it and the more you just get to understand it, the people and the conditions, the better off you are over there."

Chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said substantial planning had gone into the Indian series.

"The tour of India is an icon series for the Australian team and the selection process has been a highly detailed exercise," Hilditch said.

"A lot of planning has gone in to how we want to play against the Indian team and how we go about that in Indian conditions." Australia's opening Test against India starts in Bangalore on October 9.

SYDNEY, Sunday, AFP