Australian captain Ricky Ponting has hit back at Sunil Gavaskar's
comments that the World Champions were "an unpopular team" and said
the Indian legend was acting "high and mighty" in repeatedly criticising
his side for their on-field behaviour.Ponting said it was natural that Australia's
world domination consistently for well more than a decade invited a variety of
criticism while other teams and captains like Gavaskar were always smarted from
their defeats. 
"I don't know if there are too many popular winners.
If you are really dominating teams for a long period of time, I don't think
you end up having too many supporters around the place," the Aussie skipper
was quoted as saying in the media here today.
"I don't mind if 'Mr Perfect' comes out and goes on about our team. I
know we are all not perfect. We are not going to keep everyone happy 100 per
cent of the time.
"But for some of these guys that have done it all
themselves, it's pretty high and mighty for them to say that." Mentioning
India's miserable Test record last year when they won just three of their 12
Tests, Ponting said Gavaskar would do well to look at his own team whose development
programme he has been part of at various levels.
"I know who I would rather be going to watch. Have a look at how many
Test matches they have won," he said.
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