India and Australia get on well - Lee

Brett Lee says the Australia and India players have a close relationship off the field despite the continuing tensions during matches. Lee said although the "mental disintegration" of their opponents was a tactic used by Australia, he believed as long as nobody broke the rules on the field there should be no problems.

India have written to the match referee Jeff Crowe about what they consider Australia's players provoking their opponents. Tensions flared again on Sunday at the SCG when Ishant Sharma gave Andrew Symonds a send-off after dismissing him, and the incident cost Ishant 15% of his match fee.

However, Lee said such occurrences were not an accurate reflection of the relationship between the two squads. "I think if you see the way we get on with the Indian cricket team off the field it's a totally different story," Lee said. "As soon as we walk over that white line we're competitive and we're playing as hard as we possibly can.

"But I can tell you that off the field there has been some amazing friends formed over the past couple of months. Look, we've got some great mates in the Indian side. We're out there playing hard cricket and as long as we're playing by the rulebook then there's no problems with that."

Lee said there was nothing Australia could do about the India team management's decision to write to Crowe and all the players could do was focus on their next match. "It's just their call, isn't it?" he said. "The thing that we can concentrate on is going out there and hopefully winning games for Australia.

"I know there was a bit of stuff floating around, but it's a matter of me as a player I think to really focus on Friday's match. There has been a fair bit spoken, especially after the game and the complaints and stuff, but it's a matter now of focusing on the game of cricket."

Australia's players have gathered in Melbourne ahead of the Allan Border Medal, which Lee is a strong chance to win, if he can hold off his prolific top-order team-mate Matthew Hayden. The team's last CB Series match before the finals is against Sri Lanka at the MCG on Friday.