"boo-hoo, the Indian guy warned me"

I always believed that the Aussies were a tough, battle-hardened cricket unit. So when I read a news headline that said "Ponting was warned to drop charges against Bhajji", I assumed the warning was rather serious. You know, something like, "we'll ban you from all cricket if you don't" or "we'll turn you into a frog" or "we'll force you to live in Calcutta for the rest of your life".

This is what the article reports about the warning, which is an excerpt from Ponting's book:

" 'Why do we need to keep it quiet?' I asked the senior Indian cricketer. His reply had nothing to do with Harbhajan's guilt or innocence. This fellow tried to convince me it might not be worth the stress of going ahead with what might well be a prolonged legal process, " Ponting wrote.

That's...it? Saying that the legal process could be prolonged is the big "Warning"?
Why does it sound more like an assertion of a well-known fact (Sure, its not exactly a fact, because legal processes are not prolonged...they are un-ending).
Ponting, evidently was very disturbed by this conversation. He probably even had nightmares of senior Indian cricketers warning him about all kinds of unrelated stuff. Maybe Sunil Gavaskar appeared in one of them and warned him that he should learn Marathi, if he wants to play in Mumbai again (or should that be someone from the MNS)....dunno, just guessing.

Also, I am not sure if Ponting mentions this in his book, but he overcame his depression in a rather admirable way later. He landed up in India, played the IPL and made more money than he ever did in 3 months ("to hell with the sardar and the big weird guy, this is just too much money to refuse!")

Ponting was never exactly the role model for a well-behaved gentleman, but in the past, one could try and admire him for his tough, aggressive behaviour. But after this? Its not even an open, televised complaint to the press or something. He wrote it in a book titled "Captain's Diary" naively hoping that Indians wouldn't read it, thinking its someone's personal stuff.

Alright, to give the Aussies some credit, it is obvious that the BCCI bullied the ICC into dropping the whole issue. And while that may be wrong, I just can't help feeling good about it. When was the last time Indians bullied anybody? And to think they actually bullied the World's governing body for cricket? Sorry, but I am just going to enjoy that feeling for a few years.