PERTH (Australia), Jan 12: Australian coach Tim Nielsen said one of the biggest issues facing his all-conquering side as they prepared for the third Test against India at the WACA Ground was confronting the bitter fallout from the controversial second Test in Sydney.

The Australians have been subjected to accusations of poor sportsmanship, including from former players, following their 122-run win over the Indians to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Aiming for an unprecedented 17th straight Test win when the Test starts here on Wednesday, the Australians will have their first training session as a group since that match at the WACA on Sunday and Nielsen admitted he would address the controversies of the past week with the players as a matter of urgency.

“How it has affected different players in the group will be interesting to see,” Nielsen said. “We’ve had a nice break, we’ve had a chance to get away and process all the stuff that has been going on individually.

“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.

“We won’t start to do too much cricket until we get those things done. We need to make sure we are switched on come Monday morning.”

Nielsen was particularly sympathetic to captain Ricky Ponting, who revealed this week that his parents had been forced to change their phone number in the wake of abusive calls since the second Test.

“Ricky has carried the can for us as far as having to front the press regularly and deal with these issues as captain,” Nielsen stated. “Ideally, we can sit down with him now and offer him some support and work through this as a group.”

Nielsen said he expected Ponting to meet Indian counterpart Anil Kumble to clear the air before the Test.

“I hope that Ricky and Anil can get together and have a really good chat about these things,” Nielsen expressed, referring to a race row, accusations of poor sportsmanship and friction between the players which marred the Sydney Test.

“We do play it hard, we do play it fair, but the honesty and integrity that goes with wearing a baggy green cap is pretty strong for our group. In those 50-50 calls, there is too much for our players to lose by being anything but honest.

“If they start playing with those sorts of things, they start degrading what 120 years of Test cricket has done for us.”—AFP