Readers have written in criticising Ricky Ponting © Herald Sun

The response in Australia has been overwhelming. So much so that India, for the last two days, have appeared to be the home side. Several editorials, columnists and television experts have come out strongly against Ricky Ponting and his side but the really poignant messages have been in the 'Letters to the Editor' section. Matt Webber, writing in from Currumbin Waters in Queensland, says: "I have been at the SCG every day of every Test match for the past 16 years. On previous occasions I always left the ground with a rich array of emotions. On Sunday I left with only a feeling of dismay. Ponting has failed the game and failed his country."

Megan Brock from Summer Hill preferred wry humour: "During the Test, patrons were encouraged to vote on backyard cricket rules for a sponsor's event heavily promoted by Michael Clarke. Perhaps Clarke was applying the "you can't get out first ball" rule when he waited for the umpire's decision."

And Ken Knight from Hornsby wrote: "Ricky Ponting failed to acknowledge the tremendous fighting effort of the visiting team in his post-match interview. Instead he preferred to yahoo and fist-pump like the kind of ugly parent whose buffoonery and yobbishness sees them regularly banned from children's weekend sporting fixtures."

Peter Roebuck's fiery column, which was the lead story in the Sydney Morning Herald, ended with: "It is possible to love a country and not its cricket team." The reaction in the last 24 hours has shown just that.