Australia and India have decided to abandon their agreement of trusting the word of fielders on contentious low catches for the rest of the series.

The two teams agreed before the first Test that batsmen would accept the word of the fielder rather than refer them to the third umpire because the replays were almost always inconclusive.

• Understanding the Australian

But the sides have dropped the agreement after a number of disputed catches in the Sydney Test, saying they would now leave the verdict to the umpires.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting [Images] said India skipper Anil Kumble [Images] had asked that the agreement be cancelled after the pair held a meeting to iron out their differences.

• The Harbhajan Singh controversy

"It's been scrapped," Ponting told a news conference on Tuesday.

"That wasn't the way I wanted to play, I wanted to continue the way it was, but the feeling through the Indian team, and probably just not necessarily Anil's thoughts on it, were that they would like it to go back and be in the hands of the umpire.

"I've just had a chat with both umpires on the ground now about the whole thing and they'll be endeavouring to make the call between themselves on the field rather than just referring everything which is the way I prefer it to be."

ON CAMERA

Umpires have been facing increased criticism in recent years as their mistakes are caught on camera but Kumble said he would still prefer them to have the final say.

"I think it's best left to the judgement of the umpires and the match referee and the technology that we have," Kumble said.

"I think it's a professional sport and everybody is under equal pressure...players are always under pressure to perform."

Relations between the teams have improved after their bitter fallout in Sydney last week with Ponting and Kumble meeting face to face.

India also dropped a charge of abusive language against Australia spinner Brad Hogg [Images] even though their own spinner Harbhajan Singh [Images] was suspended for three matches after the Australians accused him of racially abusing Andrew Symonds [Images].

Harbhajan has denied the charges and lodged an appeal and Ponting said he had not given any thought yet as to whether the Australians would, or could, drop the charges as a gesture of goodwill.

"That hasn't been spoken about one bit yet, Hoggy's thing was only withdrawn late last night," Ponting said.

"We've got a pretty important Test match to play in a few hours time so that hasn't been spoken about at all yet amongst the group.

"My understanding about it all is that the hearing probably won't be until after the Adelaide Test match.

"There will be some time for the hierarchy to sit back and discuss anything that might eventuate with that."