Ponting buries the myth of a gentleman's game

Cricket hasn't been the "gentleman's game" for many years, but Australia captain Ricky Ponting is finding new ways to bury the myth at the World Cup. The 36-year-old Tasmanian started by breaking a dressing room television screen and then berated a young team-mate for daring to almost collide with him on the field.
Then, on Saturday, Ponting refused to walk despite the fact that everyone except the umpire realised he had been caught behind. And after the game against Pakistan, Ponting admitted he knew he was out, but would not walk unless umpire Marais Erasmus raised his finger.
"There were no doubts about the nick," said Ponting. "I knew I hit it, but as always I wait for the umpire to give me out. That's the way I've always played the game."
Asked by pundits shocked at Ponting's brazen admission that he openly breached one of the game's unwritten rules, Ponting replied; "That's right, the umpire gave me not out."
His refusal to walk sparked angry confrontations with Pakistan's players, who crowded around Erasmus and the batsmen, risking disciplinary sanctions themselves.
Ponting had made 19 and had progressed cautiously with Brad Haddin to 75-2 when he edged a ball from off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez to wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal in the 19th over at the Premadasa stadium.
After Erasmus gave the Australian captain not out, the decision was reviewed by the TV umpire and overturned before Ponting finally walked, to the boos of a Sri Lankan crowd that still remembers Australia's treatment of its cricketing hero Muttiah Muralitharan when he was accused of "chucking".
Australia's batting crumbled after Ponting's departure and the defending champion was dismissed for 176, handing a four-wicket victory to Pakistan and ending a 12-year-old unbeaten World Cup streak.
There are growing calls in Australia for Ponting to at least retire from limited-overs cricket. His form has been poor for the past year and he has not scored a century in any form of the game since February 2010. He doesn't play Twenty20 cricket. His shots look rusty and the authority with which he usually dispatches bowlers is missing.