Ponting willing to apologise to Pawar

Rattled by the strong reactions in India over the nudging of BCCI Chief Sharad Pawar, Australian captain Ricky Ponting today sought to cover the controversy by offering to apologise for the incident which, he said, was not meant to embarass anybody.

Admitting that the whole episode had dampened their maiden Champions Trophy victory, Ponting said his team did not mean to show disrespect to Pawar.

"I'm a bit disappointed some of the gloss has been taken off, but I'll be doing the best I can to get to the concerned people in India to get my point across and let them know we weren't trying to embarrass them," Ponting said.

"We were all pretty keen to get our hands on the trophy and celebrate, so I'll be making an effort today." Ponting said the Australians would do their bit to close the chapter of this unpleasant issue.

"We were all pretty keen to get the photo taken and get off the stage and enjoy the moment for what it was. If there needs to be anything done from the Australian cricket team's side, I'm more than happy to do that and hopefully it can be forgotten about and we can move on," he told reporters in Sydney.

Asked if he would consider tendering an apology to the BCCI supremo, Ponting said: "It probably will, yeah. If we all feel that's relevant we'll probably do that."