SYDNEY, Nov 9: The president of the Indian Cricket Board, Sharad Pawar, who was subjected to some rough treatment by the Australian cricketers during the ICC Champions Trophy ceremony in Mumbai last Saturday, described them as “totally uncivilised” according to a newspaper report published in Sydney on Thursday.

Though Pawar had played down the pushing and shoving incident at the prize distribution in order to maintain good relations with Cricket Australia (CA), the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday quoted him as saying that “Ponting's team was totally uncivilised.”

“I will not react to this other than to say it was totally uncivilised,” Pawar was quoted as saying. “This is not good at all, but I have decided to play it down as we have extremely good relationship with Australian board and we would like that to keep going.”

In an ugly incident in Mumbai, Ponting was seen asking the BCCI President to step down the stage while teammate Damien Martyn sort of nudged the former minister out of the dais.

“Those players were not allowed to come onto the dais. It was only suppose to be the captain,” said Pawar. “Certainly I would accept an apology and then we could close this chapter. Australian board is headed by a respected and civilised man and our relationship is extremely good. If they apologise, it would be a good signal to people in this country,” he said.

Sutherland and Ponting later offered to apologise for the incident even though Pawar said he was not aware of any such development.—Agencies