Spirit of cricket breached during Sydney Test: Gary Kirsten

Former South African batsman Gary Kirsten, who joined the Indian team as a consultant in Perth, believes that the spirit of cricket was breached during the controversial Sydney Test, and feels both the captains need to sit together and resolve the issue.

Sydney, Jan 13 : Former South African batsman Gary Kirsten, who joined the Indian team as a consultant in Perth, believes that the "spirit of cricket was breached" during the controversial Sydney Test, and feels both the captains need to sit together and resolve the issue.

"I'm not sitting on the fence. The game doesn't need two nations saying 'I was right'," the Cricinfo quoted Kirsten, as saying.

Kirsten, who is set to become India's head coach from March 1, said there couldn't be smoke without fire from either side.

"One needs to be a careful. I have got to look at this thing objectively. I have got to be very careful in what I say. To me what's going on is sad," he added.

Kirsten felt that it was up to the players to find the best way to resolve the issue.

"I read that Ricky Ponting and Anil Kumble are meeting up and that is very good. They need to sit down with the players and tell them, 'Listen, we are the custodians of the game at the moment and we've got to make sure we uphold this game and the passion with it should be played'."

He wanted both teams to take a fresh approach to the way they go about playing in the remainder of the series.

ANI