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India's consultant wants both teams to stop blame game

'Spirit was breached' - Kirsten

Nagraj Gollapudi in Perth

January 13, 2008

	Gary Kirsten: "The game doesn't need two nations saying 'I was right'" © Getty Images

Gary Kirsten believes the "spirit of cricket was breached" during the controversial Sydney Test, and feels both the captains need to sit together and resolve the issue.

"I'm not sitting on the fence. The game doesn't need two nations saying 'I was right'," Kirsten, who joined the Indian team as a consultant in Perth, told Cricinfo.

Refusing to take sides, Kirsten, set to become India's head coach from March 1, said there couldn't be smoke without fire from either side. "One needs to be a careful. I have got to look at this thing objectively. I have got to be very careful in what I say. To me what's going on is sad.

"I'm looking at it objectively because I wasn't in the heat of the battle. Maybe I'd have a different perspective if I was in the heat of battle saying India were unfairly treated, and there were comments made, but the way it's going is not good for the game at the moment."

Kirsten felt it was up to the players to find the best way to resolve the issue. "I read that Ricky Ponting and Anil Kumble are meeting up and that is very good. They need to sit down with the players and tell them, 'Listen, we are the custodians of the game at the moment and we've got to make sure we uphold this game and the passion with it should be played'."

He wanted both teams to take a fresh approach to the way they go about playing in the remainder of the series. "No individual is greater than the game. These are two great cricket nations and as players, they need to stand up and say, 'This is the way we are going to go about our business now'. I don't think for one minute that takes away the aggressiveness and competitiveness with which you should play the game. I think there has been an overstepping of the mark and once players breach that anything can happen."

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

© Cricinfo