No wonder cricketers love coming to Mumbai. Especially from abroad. They are gobbled up by corporates as their brand ambassadors. It was, not one, not two, but three such occasions in  India's Commercial Capital on Monday evening.

No sooner had the teams checked in at the team hotel than Australian captain Ricky Ponting was named brand ambassador of automotive products Valvoline Cummins Ltd. Both teams arrived late in the afternoon after their travel was delayed by a bird hit. The accident occurred 10 minutes after take-off from Nagpur. Five blades of one of the engines were damanged by the bird.

"I always love coming to Mumbai," Ponting said. "Whatever product I am associated with, either on and off the field, I am associated with the best," he said.

There was only one cricket question asked at what was a business press conference. And it was related to the alleged racism remarks made by Andrew Symonds after the Vadodara ODI.

Asked why so much hue and cry was made on the Symonds issue, Ponting said: "I don't think Andrew Symonds has made a big deal of the racism remarks. It were the Indian journalists who made me aware of what happened. Andrew has dealt with it in the most sensible way. He did not run into anybody and tell what happened."

Ponting also disagreed that cricket was not the number one sport in Australia. "Cricket is Australia's favourite and number one sport. It is certainly a big business in Australia, and with our success in the last 10 years, the game is spreading not just in Australia but all over the world."

Match referee’s report mentions racism

Melbourne: Match Referee Chris Broad has written to the ICC there were racial comments from the crowd during the fifth match at Vadodara last week, local media reported. An ICC spokesman confirmed that Broad had alerted them of his concerns.