Australian skipper Ricky Ponting on Tuesday gave apology for the argument with umpire during the fourth test of Ashes series versus England.

On Monday, ICC gave him a fine of 40 % of the match fee. He was involved in an argument with Aleem Dar, umpire for the match, during the game. The incident happened due to a TV referral for an appeal against Kevin Peterson for a caught behind decision.

Ponting said, “Yesterday was me overstepping the mark and obviously I apologise for the way that looked, it’s certainly not the way I want to be looked upon as a captain.”

He added, “I understand that it didn’t look good. The facts of the matter are that I was charged last night with having a prolonged discussion with the umpires. The umpires made it quite clear to the referee and myself that in no way was I aggressive … I just went on a bit too long. I accept that I was wrong.”

Ponting believes their poor display so far in the test had nothing to do with the incident. England scored a massive 513 runs in the first innings and that made them 415 runs ahead of Australia on the basis of first innings lead. There are still more than two days left in the test that is played at Melbourne.

Ponting has scored only 93 runs so far in the series and is very eager to score in the next innings. He feels the series has proved to be a difficult one for him as he has not made much runs in it.