'My team won't be influenced by Indian bookmakers,' says Ponting

Sydney, Sept.19 (ANI): Australian cricket team captain Ricky Ponting has said that he will not allow his squad to be exposed to or be influenced by Indian bookmakers.

Talking to The Sun-Herald after a punishing fitness session in Cronulla last week, Ponting said that he and his team considered it their duty to help the game heal by playing an entertaining brand of cricket that would enthral fans around the world.

Ponting rejected the notion unscrupulous bookmakers posed a potential problem for his team through innocent "fan" photos that could be used in any attempt to tarnish "clean" players' reputations.

"It's not a concern for us. I know there's been a fair bit of digging over the last few weeks to try and find some stuff on the Australian players but we've always handled those things in the appropriate manner," The Age quoted Ponting, as saying.

"It's not that it's not worth it [the drama of being associated with bookies] but it's wrong. It's illegal. It's against the law, and whatever you [a player] can do to stamp that out of our game, you go and do it. That's what our blokes who were mentioned over the last couple of weeks did straight away. They know what the right and wrong thing is and they did the right thing and reported it to the team management and they [management] took it from there," he said.

"So it's the least of our worries going to the subcontinent, we know how to handle it," he added.

Meanwhile, former Australian bowler Geoff Lawson, who has coached Pakistan, told the media during the week the tour of India could be a "healing" opportunity for the game.

"This India-Australia series is very important. People in Australia are looking forward to the Ashes. A good, tough and hard series before the Ashes will do a lot to retain people's faith in the game," Lawson said.

"If players play good cricket and the public see good cricket, they will forget what's gone on before. The people want their heroes to play well. There wasn't a hero in this controversy," he added.

Lawson's point wasn't lost on Ponting, who said the Australians were aware of their role to help the game rebuild.

"For us [the Australians], we can't do any more than try to make the games as positive as we can, and we play that way," he said.

Australia are due to depart today for the two-Test tour of India. (ANI)