Former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri on Saturday supported Ricky Ponting over the dressing room fiasco by saying such incidents are nothing new in cricket.
The Australian apparently damaged a television in the dressing room during Australia's World Cup opening match against Zimbabwe on Monday, where he was run out for 28 by a direct hit from Chris Mpofu.
The matter was reported to the ICC by BCCI, but Ponting escaped without fine after match referee Roshan Mahanama accepted the incident was unintentional.
In an interview to The Australian Shastri said: "The dressing room is like a temple, a church, a mosque or a gurdwara. What happens in a dressing room stays in a dressing-room."
"If anyone was to reprimand Ponting it should have been Cricket Australia (CA). If he's broken a TV he has to pay his dues for that and get on with it."
"But as far as an official hanging around dressing rooms is concerned, I say very clearly there is no way he would have had a sniff of the dressing room in our day."
Shastri also said reporting such incidents is an invasion of a player's right to privacy
"Everyone's human and the dressing room has been the only place you can vent your feelings. You take out your frustrations and then it's over. Far worse has been done than broken televisions."
The Tasmanian had immediately apologised for the incident and said whatever happened was not deliberate.
"The television was hit by my box that I had thrown down at the end of the cricket kit. I reported the matter straightaway to the team manager and they replaced the TV set immediately."
"The dressing room is a pretty sacred sort of place and there is always a line which one shouldn't cross. It was accidental and no malice was involved whatsoever," Ponting had said in the aftermath of the incident.