Harbhajan has been 'unmasked' - Ponting

Ricky Ponting said Harbhajan Singh has been "unmasked" by the slapping row with Sreesanth, which came just a few months after the Australians had on-field issues with Harbhajan during the Test series in Australia. Ponting said it was a concern that the Sreesanth controversy was just the latest in a string of incidents involving Harbhajan.

"The incident was him dealing with a guy that he has probably played 20 Tests with," Ponting told the Courier-Mail. "After this latest issue in India, I think people should be making their own judgments about Harbhajan. He has again done something wrong."

Meanwhile, Ponting's former Australia team-mate Shane Warne, who is captaining the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, felt the controversy would only help Harbhajan. "I can't believe everything which is read," Warne said. "What has happened is good in a sense. Harbhajan has realised he has done wrong, he is embarrassed. It was good that he admitted straight away that he done some thing wrong.

"The ups and down come in every players life. It may bring a turnaround for him."

Ponting said he and his team-mates were keen to move on from the issues during the Australian summer, when Harbhajan was accused of calling Andrew Symonds a "monkey". Harbhajan was initially banned for three Tests but was later cleared after his appeal, and Ponting said of the verdict: "It certainly wasn't the outcome that we expected."

Ponting conceded the Australians showed several lapses of judgment during the series but he was frustrated that issues were magnified in the press. "Most of us would put our hands up and say we made a few minor errors last year," he said.

"I think the thing that happened was that every time there was a minor error it was turned into something that was a lot bigger than it was. I was reading things about Harbhajan and having run-ins on the field when we didn't talk to each other in the course of the day."