Australia should immediately sack its arrogant and abrasive captain Ricky Ponting and it’s a surprise that India has not called off the tour and gone back home, said an aghast Peter Roebuck, one of the most reputed cricket writers of this era.
Lambasting the members of the Australian side for their rude behaviour, Roebuck, the former Somerset captain who is based in Sydney, singled out Ponting and said the captain must be sacked. “If Cricket Australia cares a fig for the tattered reputation of our national team in our national sport, it will not for a moment longer tolerate the sort of arrogant and abrasive conduct seen from the captain and his senior players over the past few days,” he said.
“Beyond comparison it was the ugliest performance put up by an Australian side for 20 years,” he wrote in his column for Sydney Morning Herald. “The only surprising part of it is that the Indians have not packed their bags and gone home. There is no justice for them in this country, nor any manners,” he observed.
He said the lack of sportsmanship among the Australians hurt their fans and former players alike. “Pained past players rang to express their disgust. It was a wretched and ill-mannered display and not to be endured from any side, let alone an international outfit representing a proud sporting nation,” Roebuck wrote. 
He was no less harsh on the hosts for targeting Harbhajan Singh. “Harbhajan Singh can be an irritating young man but he is head of a family and responsible for raising nine people. And all the Australian elders want to do is to hunt him from the game. Australian fieldsmen fire insults from the corners of their mouths, an intemperate Sikh warrior overreacts and his rudeness is seized upon.”