Champions League hindered our preparation: Ponting

Melbourne:

Winning the series opener could not dilute Ricky Ponting's anger and the Australian captain is absolutely furious, claiming that the Champions League Twenty20 hindered his team's preparation for the ongoing ODI series against India.

Three players of the Australian squad -- Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz and Doug Bollinger -- joined the team in Vadodara on the night before the match, after guiding New South Wales Blues to the Champions League Twenty20 title in Hyderabad on Friday.

The NSW trio missed four training sessions and the pre-match team meeting as well.

While all three arrived fatigued, Lee had this additional complaint of a sore elbow, which eventually kept him out of action towards the end of Sunday's ODI and made him doubtful for the second match in Nagpur.

"There's no doubt those guys playing in the (Champions League) final hindered our preparation," Ponting said.

"We had three players fly in and get to the hotel at 8.30pm Saturday night and we're leaving the hotel at 7am on match morning. There was not much time for us to get our team tactics in order. We had a team meeting after training and those blokes were not even here," Ponting was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

"It hindered our preparation and theirs," he added.