Wonder why I was the bad guy at Lord's: Ponting

London:

Ricky Ponting can't understand why he was picked as the "bad guy" by fans at Lord's during the second Ashes Test and says he was surprised by the heckling he got at the home of cricket.

"I'm not sure why I was so much the bad guy with the fans. Lord's is the one place around England where you don't expect to be heckled," Ponting wrote in 'The Daily Telegraph'.

"You tend to get a more subdued, cricket-loving crowd, and one that's more focused on what's happening in the game than the little things around the edges," he added.

Ponting was repeatedly booed by the fans and the diminutive Aussie admitted it was unnerving.

"But any Australian captain is going to cop it over here.

Some have said it's because I'm the last one out of that group of players who had a lot of Ashes success in late 1990s and early 2000s. So perhaps it's just payback time," he reasoned.

On the controversial umpiring decisions that marred the second Test which Australia lost, Ponting reiterated that the fielder's word should be taken on contentious catches.

"When I took over this job five years ago, I tried to initiate a policy of always taking the fielder's word in these situations. All other captains said no, because they wanted extra protection for their players, and that's fine," he said.

"... the two incidents last week involving low catches were not handled in exactly the same way. But as a player, you just have to accept the decision and see what happens over the remainder of the game," he added.