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The war of words between Australia and New Zealand has escalated ahead of tonight's Chappell-Hadlee clash.
Following Australia's seven-wicket win in Adelaide, Aussie captain Ricky Ponting slammed New Zealand's handling of the Shaun Tait throwing furore, calling it "disappointing" and "absolute rubbish".
His counterpart, Daniel Vettori, while apparently
trying to douse the flames, probably only fanned them when he declined to take the opportunity to OK the speedster's action when it was offered.
Vettori's reticence to 'clear' Tait can only be interpreted as a signal that at least some in the New Zealand camp have serious doubts about the validity of the speedster's unusual, slinging style.
The concerns are understood to have begun in Perth during Tait's frighteningly quick four-over spell in the Twenty20 international. Tait at times pushed the magical 100mph barrier (160km/h) but super slo-mo footage provided by host broadcaster Channel Nine appeared to show a 'snapping' of the elbow at the point of delivery. That in itself is not illegal, or particularly unusual, but the angle of flexion has to stay within the 15 degrees stipulated by the International Cricket Council.
If anybody thought the issue would fade into the background they were mistaken with both Ponting and Vettori, in different manners, pouring kerosene onto the bonfire.
Ponting admitted he was so shocked by the revelation he sought out Tait for a talk before the first Chappell-Hadlee match at Tait's home ground, the Adelaide Oval.
"I had a really good chat to him in the [Friday] morning and he was fine, as you probably would be when you get something completely out of the blue like that," Ponting said.
"There's been no speculation whatsoever about his action before so I had a chat to him about it and he was fine but he probably just tried a bit too hard to take early wickets."
Tait, known as Wild Thing, was quick but wayward early, but came back well to take 3-59 from his 10 overs. Cameras did not appear to pick up anything untoward with his arm.
"He's got my full support, as he has from everyone else in the Australian dressing rooms.
"I don't know what happened tonight, whether the Channel Nine guys have been slowing it down or whether the television coverage has picked up anything but it all looks pretty good to me," Ponting said.
"I must admit that I got a bit of a shock when I was sitting back on my couch watching the golf and that thrust across the television screen. That's all it was, a shock. It wasn't spoken about in the warm-ups at all so I think everyone handled it really well, Shaun especially. He just got on with the game.
"When things like that come up that are absolute rubbish you try to dismiss them and get on with preparing yourself for a game of cricket."
Ponting said that, while the New Zealanders were entitled to their opinions, the saga only added to his side's motivation to claim back tonight the Chappell-Hadlee trophy they lost earlier this year - with a game to spare.
"That's their opinion I guess," Ponting said. "It seems to be their opinion that they have some sort of concern about his action.
"To air it publicly is a bit disappointing but what can you do? They're entitled to their opinion I suppose. It probably just makes us that little bit hungrier to go out there and play some good cricket against them."
Vettori, on his first tour as captain of the New Zealand side, admitted the original question, on the eve of the series, had caught him on the hop and he was clearly not that happy with how he had dealt with it.
"Look, I was probably caught off-guard by the question.
"It's not something I'd really thought about and like I said at the toss [on Friday] I never meant to insinuate that he was a chucker."
But Vettori is an intelligent man and must know that he is now damning Tait with his insistence that everything be referred to the ICC process that begins with a report from match referee Roshan Mahanama.
"I know from after speaking to Roshan that there is a process in place if you feel that a bowler has an illegal action - and we haven't gone through that process so I guess that intimates our answer."
But does it? Vettori was then asked explicitly whether he thought Tait's action was OK?
"Once again, there's a process in place," was his response.
Expect to hear a lot more about this before it disappears.
