Aussies better off without Warnie

THE Ricky Ponting-Brett Lee spat might have looked bad, but this is Australia's most unified team in more than a decade - because Shane Warne is not playing.

Warne is probably second only to Sir Donald Bradman as the greatest Australian cricketer of all time and he is being sorely missed on the field, but this rebuilding team can do without his dark mutterings and long knives.

Ponting and Lee had a simple disagreement during the second Test in Mohali that the captain should have handled better, but there is no history to it and there will be no residue.

Shortly before lunch on Monday, Lee wanted to know why everyone had bowled except him and why modest leg-spinner Cameron White was coming on for a second spell.

With India rapidly charging away and Ponting in danger of suspension if he fell more than five overs behind the required rate, the captain gave his premier fast bowler an animated response.

Lee was clearly offended because he refused to stop and talk to his captain in a team huddle when a wicket fell a short time later, constantly walking away.

They sorted things out at lunch and Lee bowled immediately after the break, although once again he had little impact.

Ponting has been a wonderful captain through an increasingly difficult transition period that has inevitably seen Australia lose their previously untouchable status.

Even so, Ponting still has one of the most successful captaincy records in the history of the game, winning 33 of 46 Tests in charge. Only Steve Waugh (41 wins from 57 Tests) and Clive Lloyd (36 in 74 Tests) have won more as captain.

But of all the footage Australia watch during the course of their preparations, Ponting needs to look at some of Mark Taylor's demeanour when he led the side.

Ever the statesman, Taylor would walk up to players or umpires, arms folded, and always talk to them in the same deadpan fashion.

Ponting, always an energetic and lively jack-in-the-box, often runs up to players and umpires and almost always uses animated body language, which can look bad. If Ponting had not been so animated in his chat with Lee on Monday morning the world would not have believed there was a problem and his fast bowler may have stood still and listened.

A shy boy from Launceston's working class Mowbray who was usually one of the youngest in the team, Ponting has taken time to grow into the wider role as captain but showed his maturity by delivering the Bradman Oration on the 100th anniversary of Bradman's birth in August.

Ponting is gun-barrel straight, has a tremendous work ethic and desire for success he expects other to share, and has no political agendas.

That's why he and Lee have no lingering issues in the way Warne used to take them into the dressing room and on to the field.

When Taylor struggled during the 1996-1997 summer, Warne was the first to begin muttering, "How's Tubby's form?"

There was almost a mutiny during the South African tour that followed when Ian Healy and Steve Waugh lined up for the one-day captaincy as Taylor's form slump continued.

And Warne, miffed at missing out on the captaincy when Taylor retired, made no attempt to hide his disdain for Waugh during the difficult early stages of the 1999 World Cup.

Waugh had dropped Warne in the Caribbean earlier that year because he had not fully recovered from a shoulder operation, and Warne never forgave him.

"How's Tugga going," Warne would repeat on the field as Australia struggled at the start of the 1999 World Cup. "How's Tugga going."

There is no mutiny in the current Australia side, just a lot of soul-searching after this week's thumping 320-run loss.