Stung after Anil Kumble and his comrades-in-arms halted the Australian juggernaut, denying them a record 17th straight Tests win, the media here cried foul, blaming the defeat to India's financial clout and the game's ‘weak-kneed’ governing body.

"India's stunning performance in the third Test at the WACA should be dedicated to a lot more than the 11 players out on the field," a whining report in the 'Courier Mail' said.

"They should share their pay cheques with their bullying officials back home, the weak-kneed administrators at the International Cricket Council and certain members of the media who have taken every opportunity to put the knife into the Aussies since this series began," Mike Colman wrote in the daily.

The barrage of criticism after the acrimonious Sydney Test had forced Ricky Ponting and his teammates to discard their ruthlessness and the rather civilised approach to the game never really worked for them, he said.

"Remember that scene in one of the Rocky movies where Rocky's trainer tells him he's no longer feared by his opponents?

'Kid,' he says, 'the worst thing that could happen to a fighter happened to you. You got civilised.'"