Taking a swipe at Shane Warne in a bid to soften the scrutiny on captain Ricky Ponting, Australian national selector Merv Hughes has said that Warne's criticism was unfair.
Warne caused a furore when he used Twitter to question what he felt were Ponting's poor field placements for spinner Nathan Hauritz as India stormed to a series victory.
It was later discovered Hauritz had himself set a largely defensive leg-side field for his opening two overs, which cost him 22 runs.
"That happens in all sports. Warney has played a lot of cricket and he is a good surveyor of the game, there is no doubt about that," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Hughes, as saying.
"But having a go at Ricky when he talks to the bowlers about the field, if the bowlers aren't happy, they change it. I think there is a misunderstanding there.
"Then, the question comes up, if he [the captain] is happy with the way the field is and the bowler is not bowling to it, what do you do? You would say obviously at the time they had a plan that didn't work," Hughes said.
Warne, who occasionally works with Australian spinners at the Centre of Excellence, has since offered to help Hauritz.
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