Ricky Ponting was involved in an angry confrontation with a fan at Edgbaston, it has been revealed, as the controversy over ugly crowd behaviour continues to bubble.

Ponting confirmed on Thursday he exchanged words with an abusive fan after being dismissed in Australia's first innings at Edgbaston last week. The fan was later ejected.

Sky Sports captured footage of the incident but did not air the images as 'you could clearly hear and see that both men were swearing', former England captain and commentator Nasser Hussain wrote in the Daily Mail.

Ponting has received a chorus of jeers in the past two Tests, including from the traditionally ultra-conservative fans at establishment venue Lord's, but avoided confrontation until the Edgbaston clash.

"The spectator was actually leaning over the grandstand and gave me a bit of a gobful as I got out the other day," Ponting said.

"And as it turned out, he was later thrown out of the ground so he was probably in the wrong doing what he did."

Ponting was also critical of security for allowing a fan to get so close to a player.

"Where we walked on and off was very close to the vicinity of all the spectators, so if there's one place in the world where a security guard should have been standing it was right there where that spectator was," he said.

"It could have been avoided."

The notoriously boisterous crowd at Leeds has been warned to behave by high-ranking ECB and Yorkshire officials.

Ponting said there had been no request from Australia team management for the crowds to quieten down.

"It happens everywhere around the world, and it's no bigger deal here than in other series around the world, to be honest," he said.

"I've actually really enjoyed a lot of the spectator participation in the series. The Barmy Army, as I've always said, are the best group of sports supporters I've seen in the world."

"They come to the cricket to enjoy themselves, and it's small minorities that make days a little bit disappointing for others."

England captain Andrew Strauss did not think the jeering of Ponting was malicious, describing it as 'light-hearted ribbing'.

"It's just more the way it's construed more than anything. In a way it's probably a sign of respect for him," he said.

"You just don't want to see things develop and get worse and worse and worse to the extent there's genuine abuse there of opposition players, no one wants to see that."

"But some light-hearted ribbing is obviously both entertaining and quite helpful."