Ponting doubts legitimacy of Sydney victory

Melbourne: Australian captain Ricky Ponting's doubts about the genuineness of his team's win in the Sydney Test against Pakistan are mounting amid reports that the ICC knew of suspected match fixer Mazhar Majeed's activities during the game.

Ricky Ponting fears one of the proudest moments of his career could not be real. © AFP

The game had been investigated and cleared of any match-fixing by the ICC a few months ago but Majeed claimed that the result was indeed manipulated during a sting operation carried out by a British tabloid.
And the latest report about ICC knowing about Majeed's activities but choosing not to issue a warning during the match has only added to the suspicions surrounding it.
"I probably have a few more doubts now that there have been some allegations made about some of the finer points and littler things that happened during that Sydney Test match," Ponting told ABC channel.
"The one thing I'm very protective of though is the performance that we put up that day ... touch wood the Sydney Test match is not one that has anything untoward happening out of it because I really feel that coming off the ground that day, that's one of the proudest moments of my career," he added.

But Cricket Australia chairman James Sutherland said he still firmly believes that the match, which the Aussies won after a stunning Pakistani collapse, was clean.

"That's scuttlebutt that is to be proven. I trust that is the subject now of a proper investigation by the ICC and we can get to the bottom of that, because if there is any truth to that then that's obviously something of great concern to cricket fans and cricket administrators all over the world," Sutherland said.