Melbourne, Jan 30: Sri Lanka's cricketers flew home yesterday with skipper Angelo Matthews playing down the strong verbal exchange on Monday night with Australian players during the T-20 match and Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Matthews, who took over after Mahela Jayawardene stepped down after the disastrous test series said: "To be honest, its just heat of the moment. Things happen. You exchange a few words. They play it hard, we play it hard. That's it. After the game you're friends.''
Australian captain George Bailey said: "It's passion, mate. I think people care about the game and care about the way they play. That's it.
''We get along very well. The chat coming off, its all just heat of the moment stuff. What you're seeing is individuals and teams pretty keen to win.''
Both teams apologized to each other and the match referee India's Javagal Srinath said he would let the incident pass, with no action taken.
Tensions boiled over when the Sri Lankans gathered for a tactical talk before seamer Thisara Perera delivered the last ball to Glenn Maxwell, who needed to hit it for four.
Maxwell yelled at them to get on with it and was given a serve back from Jayawardene.
After failing to hit the ball, Maxwell was taunted by Perera and when the teams lined up to shake hands the sledging continued with other players joining in.
Later Maxwell made a point of apologising - and got one back, apparently.
''Absolutely shattered ... I went into SL rooms after and they apologised for going over the top. All good,'' he tweeted.
''Just to clarify ... I apologised to Mahela and SL players as well. I have a good friendship with Mahela and its gonna stay that way.''
