Cricket waved its declaration of peace from the comfort of armchairs yesterday, just in time for the hostilities to resume without a full-scale war breaking out.

With the bad taste out of the mouth perhaps, we will be reintroduced to the jaw-dropping exploits of the greatest team in international sport when the mighty Australians set about mauling India with the aim of creating a world record 17 successive victories.

If you noted the reactionary polls and read the words of one columnist in particular out of Australia, you might have believed that these outstanding modern gladiators were so reviled in their own country that upon reaching this summit in cricket history, they would be promptly marched to the bottom of the hill and put in stocks.

It seemed their captain Ricky Ponting, a batsman compared by his predecessor Steve Waugh to Don Bradman a few hundred runs ago, would be lucky to escape with rotten eggs on the face.

The numbers suggested that even those cheering Australian supporters in the stadiums attacked their heroes the moment they got in range of the most savage of modern weapons, the internet polling yes/no button.

There is a science to proper polling and none of it sneaks past this firewall. Black and white questions, yes/no responses, dangerously random samples, all in the heat of the moment.

The real test of this extraordinary flow of sentiment against the Australian leader would have been to ask the question a day before the appearance of self-naturalised Australian Peter Roebuck's column calling for Ponting to be sacked as captain.

Sack Punter? "What the hell are they on about?" might have been the response. Yet a day later, most of Australia, we were told, would have happily marched upon Ponting's home demanding he fall on a sword that is producing test returns at nearly 60 runs a pop.

A well-aimed column, a flash poll, a few well-edited words from luminaries, and, hey presto, revolution. Among those apparently deploring Ponting was the sailing maestro John Bertrand and yet I heard Bertrand interviewed on radio and his manner was more reasoned than the written quotes suggested.

For a channel of media onslaught to turn on a player who has achieved so much for his country was beyond belief, and for great segments of public opinion to apparently follow suit is just as amazing.

The ridiculous part was that Australia were portrayed as the only transgressor, where as other countries - including India - are hardly angels.