Of all the extraordinary achievements of Australia’s cricketers, which include victories in the past three World Cups and in every Test of the past two years, managing to turn their own public against them must rank high on the list.

The Australian people, conscious of their country’s geographical isolation, know their best chance of making a good impression on the wider world is through sport, and in terms of results their team had been doing them proud. But last week’s antics in Sydney awakened the nation to the win-at-all-costs mentality that governs the Australian dressing room. The team has never been as popular as it ought to be, and it is no coincidence that attendances are in decline, but rarely had an Australian victory owed so much to the refusal of their batsmen to walk or to the fraudulent catches of their fielders.

The response was devastating. An opinion poll in the Sydney Daily Telegraph showed 82% of Australians believed Ricky Ponting was not a great ambassador for the country, and 79% felt the national team did not play within the spirit of cricket. Abusive phone calls were made to Ponting’s parents. The country has its jingoists – three years ago, spectators at Perth, the venue for this week’s third Test, racially abused the South African team – but in the main it is a conservative nation embarrassed by the sharp practice of its representatives.

Geoff Lawson, the Australian fast bowler turned Pakistan coach, accused Australia of arrogance and disrespecting the baggy green cap, while John Bertrand, the America’s Cup-winning yachtsman, called on Cricket Australia to tell its players to show the game more respect.

Australian cricket is reaping what it has sown. Long before Ponting became captain, Allan Border, Merv Hughes, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne were giving gamesmanship a bad name. It is from them that the latest generation take their lead. Ponting’s first Test series, in 1995, saw the Sri Lankans subjected to all manner of humiliations in Australia. Their bowlers were accused of ball-tampering and throwing, their players in general demeaned and abused. When it was over they refused to shake Taylor’s hand.

Ponting’s problem is that he has never really stopped being the childhood prodigy who went around (aged four) wearing a T-shirt inscribed with “Inside this shirt is an Australian Test Cricketer”. He expects to get things his own way. His world revolves around cricket, his beloved greyhounds and drinking beer. Unlike Waugh, his predecessor, he has little interest in the outside world.

But the outside world has been changing. In the past 15 years, Australia has seen an influx of immigrant groups, including many Asians, and its people have been forced to review their society and their attitudes towards racial tolerance in the wake of events such as the 2005 Cronulla riots.

The changing demographics have not been reflected in professional cricket, which remains largely the preserve of Anglo-Saxons. In this sterile atmosphere, unreconstructed thinking lived on. Jimmy Maher once referred to Aborigines as “coons” during a postmatch drinking session, while Darren Lehmann was overheard shouting “black c***s” after losing his wicket to Sri Lanka in 2003.

Now, perhaps, the Australian team is overly protective towards the one nonwhite in their team, Andrew Symonds. During a one-day series in India three months ago, Symonds was baited by monkey-chants from spectators, and it was Symonds, of course, whom Harbhajan Singh allegedly called a “monkey” in Sydney. Australia lodged protests with the Indian board about the first incident. Ponting was the driving force behind an official inquiry into the second.

But how offensive were these incidents? Last week, Waugh said he had seen footage of the crowd behaviour in India and concluded that “most of the spectators were just having some light-hearted banter and there was no malice in most cases”. And when Symonds and Harbhajan first crossed swords in India, Symonds tried to sort things out face to face, rather than go to the referee, as his teammates wanted.

The Indians insist that Harbhajan, provoked by Symonds breaking their truce, didn’t use the word “monkey” but a similar-sounding Hindi word that was offensive but not racial.

What sticks in the craw is Australia’s double-standards. On the final day in Sydney – two days after the Harbhajan-Symonds flashpoint – Brad Hogg allegedly said to Anil Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni: “I’m looking forward to running through you bastards.” But in the baggy green world, bastards is okay.

And what about this? When South Africa’s Graeme Smith went public with a graphic account of the abuse he received from Warne and Matthew Hayden on his Test debut, Ponting’s reaction was: “I could never imagine an Australian saying he was abused on a cricket field.” That’s the trouble with Ponting. No imagination.

One of the most potent images of last winter’s Ashes was Warne halting play to protest to the umpires at the back-chat from England fielders. Really, how was he supposed to concentrate? Maybe by doing what Australia’s opponents have to do. Deal with it. Then there’s the issue of not walking. Australians invented this form of cheating and whenever they are criticised they trundle out the swings-and-rounda-bouts argument: for every one you get away with, you’ll be wrongly nailed with another, so it all evens itself out.

Except Ponting finds it difficult to take the rough after the smooth. This was what really did for his credibility in Sydney. Having been given an early let-off by the umpire, he threw the toys out of the pram when given out leg-before off an inside edge. It is worth remembering that when Adam Gilchrist made it known at the 2003 World Cup that he intended to walk – and did so– he incurred Ponting’s wrath.

For all this, the Australians don’t like to be accused of not playing by the rules. In their eyes, gamesmanship is one thing, cheating another. That is why Ponting and Symonds, who admitted to not walking when caught behind 30 runs into his innings of 162 in the second Test, rushed to give their versions to the media once the backlash started. They insisted the exchanges with the Indians had been light-hearted. Kumble didn’t agree, saying that “only one team was playing within the spirit of the game”. For Perth, he will probably pull out of his deal with Ponting to accept the other’s word on catches.

It is no coincidence that things got out of hand when Australia had a fight on their hands. Ponting has never whinged better than when Australia were losing in England in 2005. Remember how beastly England were over the use of substitute fielders? Remember how nobody came to ask how Ponting was after being hit by Steve Harmison at Lord’s?

Ponting will survive this crisis because changing the captain would not change the philosophy. Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey have shown by their refusal to walk and their pressuring of umpires that they play the same way. But Ponting faces his toughest challenge yet, winning back the hearts and minds of the people.