The Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has spoken out about the alcohol fuelled behaviour of star allrounder Andrew Symonds.
Symonds' career is in jeopardy after he made disparaging comments about the New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum on a radio show.
Symonds, who was under the influence of alcohol at the time, has since apologised.
Cricket Australia is investigating the matter.
Ricky Ponting says the incident involving the troubled player should never have happened.
He says hopefully Symonds can work through these issues with his councillors.