“The team is being criticised, members of the team are being criticised and they need to be aware of that — they need to respond to that,” Speed said. “All national teams should play cricket in the right spirit. We need to be clear what that means,” he said.

Speed also reiterated that he was relieved that the replacement of umpire Steve Bucknor prevented an international crisis. “We could have gone in banging the table and playing ‘who blinks first’, we could have turned what is already an international incident into an international crisis. What we have elected to do, and we have given some serious thought about this, is to take one of the issues out of play,” he said.

But Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland, who appeared unperturbed by the barrage of criticism, said Ponting and his men might have mouthed a word or two in the heat of the moment but never overstepped the line. “Test cricket is what is being played here. It’s not tiddlywinks,” said Sutherland, maintaining Australia always played the game hard but fair.