Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting today said he was "offended" after Mark Taylor blasted his feud with Michael Clarke, saying it should have stayed in the dressing room.
Current skipper Clarke was reportedly furious when he learned ex-captain Ponting's autobiography, released last week, contained concerns about his then-deputy's attitude.
The book also offers an unfavourable appraisal of Clarke's ill-fated relationship with bikini model Lara Bingle, which ended in 2010 when he flew back from a tour of New Zealand to sort out his private life.
Clarke bristled at a press conference yesterday when asked for his reaction to Ponting's comments.
"Ricky said that did he? Well, Ricky has my number," he said.
Ponting reportedly responded that Clarke "won't read anything in the book that he wouldn't have known about himself or how I felt about it around the team".
Taylor, who was captain from 1994 to 1999 and is now a Cricket Australia director, said the players' differences should have stayed behind closed doors.
"The disappointing thing for me was that this wasn't left in the change-room and it wasn't sorted out in the change-room," he told commercial radio yesterday.
"Look, to me it takes two to tango -- I reckon Michael Clarke probably could have done more to appease the situation, and from what I've seen and read and heard in recent times, there's no doubt Ricky Ponting could have done more as well."
Ponting said he was offended by the accusation that he had broken the sanctity of the Australian team change room, claiming the events were already public knowledge.
