Bombay Sports Exchange | When Sourav Ganguly pissed off Ricky Ponting after wearing casuals at toss, reveals Shane Watson

Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson has revealed how the inception of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008 diffused the animosity between international cricketers when they started being teammates for the different franchises.In the fiftieth episode of the Bombay Sports Exchange (BSE), K Shriniwas Rao, Head of Content (Sports) at Times Internet, sat down with Shane Watson. The Australian all-rounder gave a first-hand account of how relations changed between international players after the first season of the IPL."It was what needed to happen because things that were happening on the field, from an international cricket perspective, weren't ideal. The way things really did boil over at times, and the IPL really was a catalyst to be able to really pull that tension out of the game," said Watson."There's no doubt that especially the players that you didn't get to know, or one of your mates didn't get to know, those tensions were still on the field. I think about times when I played against India, when I played against other teams internationally, where you didn't know those guys. And so there was no tension taken out of the air."It was going flat out, which is always something that I loved. And that was something that I really enjoyed about playing the game of cricket, where you can push the limit from a survival mode perspective, to be able to bring the best out of yourself and also the opposition you're playing against," he said.Watson highlighted two situations from the inaugural IPL. First, Shane Warne and Graeme Smith being teammates at Rajasthan Royals, who became the eventual champions, and second, Ricky Ponting playing under Sourav Ganguly at the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)."Two situations that stand out for me. First, Graeme Smith and Shane Warne. Shane Warne did not like Graeme Smith at all. Graeme Smith, in the first series that he played, came out and told the media about all the things that Warne said on the field, which Warne just obviously absolutely despised that coming out. So that tension, and then they played together and became really good mates at the Rajasthan Royals, was a part of winning the first IPL.Who's that IPL player?"Then the other one you think about is Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly at the KKR."So Ricky only played two weeks there before he had to go for the Test Tour of the West Indies in 2008. But there was obviously, from an Australian perspective, a lot of tension around Sourav Ganguly rocking up to the toss in casual clothes late. It's like, who is this guy? Isn't he disrespecting the toss and all that sort of stuff, right? So there was a lot of animosity between the Australian players and Sourav Ganguly."So then playing on the same team together, and then they obviously got to know each other away from the game of cricket and got along. So those sort of rivalries and tensions that had been built, the IPL just diffused that straight away."