It was not all camaraderie in the last match of the cricket series with Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly being sledged by Aussie speedster Brad Williams during the second of the best-of-three VB Series finals at Sydney on Sunday.
Williams started to abuse Ganguly from the moment he came out to bat and it was hard enough for the Indian captain to draw the attention of his counterpart Ricky Ponting before he took guard in the middle.
"From the time I walked out of Sydney gates till I reached the middle, it kept going. (I spoke to Ponting) because I didn't want it to start all over again... I didn't want to blow it out of proportion."
But it was not as if only India were at the receiving end as their young pace bowler Irfan Pathan was all fire himself, consistently having a go at Matthew Hayden and clapping in the face of Damien Martyn after he got him out, forcing the batsman to complain to the umpire before he left the ground.
Though Hayden did not want to comment on the incident, Ganguly was more forthcoming.
"I keep telling my boys that everytime they get aggressive, my match fees get deducted. I keep telling them to be careful because at this rate I might land up with no money after this tour," he said in a lighter vein.
The bantering was on throughout the series and Indians found Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, two cricketers with the clean cut image, quite a mouthful behind the stumps.
Ganguly, apparently retorted once to Gilchrist after one of his constant chatters "you're not as innocent as you look".
