“We’ll sit down as a group and see how each bloke has been affected by it and how they perceive it and make sure we have a pretty clear idea about how we want to go about it as we go forward individually and as a group,” Nielsen told reporters here.

“We won’t start to do too much cricket until we get those things done,” he added. Nielsen sympathised with skipper Ponting, who has had to face maximum criticism. “Ricky has carried the can for us as far as having to front the press regularly and deal with these issues as captain,” Nielsen said.

“Ideally, we can sit down with him now and offer him some support and work through this as a group,” he added. Nielsen also hoped that the meeting between Ponting and Kumble translates into an end to the hostilities between the two sides.

“I hope that Ricky and Anil can get together and have a really good chat about these things,” he said.

He, however, maintained that contrary to the criticism the world champions play fair and with integrity.