Ricky Ponting steps down as captain

Ricky Ponting has stepped down as Australia's captain in Tests and ODIs following their quarter-final exit from the World Cup but will be available for selection as a batsman in both formats. Ponting made the announcement at the SCG on Tuesday, and backed Michael Clarke to take over the leadership of the team.

Ponting said the World Cup exit had prompted his decision and that "no one has tapped me on the shoulder asking me to go."

"I have resigned as captain of both the Test and one-day Australian teams. I will continue to play and am available for selection in both the one day and Test teams," Ponting said. "I have thought long and hard about what Australian cricket needs. Now is the right time for the next captain to assume the responsibility for both the Test and one-day teams. We have to be doing everything we can to win back the Ashes in 2013-14 and the World Cup in 2015. It is highly unlikely that I will be still playing so it is the right decision for Australian cricket that the next captain now be appointed. This will give him the opportunity to create his own direction and legacy.

"Today is a new start for me and I am very excited about the future. I will give my complete support to our new captain and continue to do my best to set the best possible example for my team-mates and emerging cricketers alike."

Ponting expressed his desire to travel to Bangladesh for three limited-overs matches next month. The team for the tour will not be named until Wednesday, but Ponting's announcement should allow Clarke to assume the captaincy on the tour, before difficult assignments against Sri Lanka and South Africa later in the year.

On his arrival home from an unsuccessful World Cup defence, Ponting had said he was prepared to give up the captaincy and also move down the batting order if it was in the interests of the Australian team. With the benefit of a day's reflection, he decided that now was the best time to go. At 36, Ponting believed he can still enjoy the type of renaissance that has sustained Sachin Tendulkar in recent times.

 

Ponting held the Australian Test and one-day captaincy since he took over from Steve Waugh. He led Australia in 77 Tests of which 48 were wins, the most for any captain. He also captained Australia in a record 228 ODIs and won 164, including two World Cups in 2003 and 2007. Ponting's fortunes as captain, however, waned along with those of the team as a series of retirements weakened its resources. His Test captaincy culminated in the 3-1 home Ashes defeat in 2010-11 and his one-day reign ended after the elimination from the World Cup.

Symonds' exit upset 20-20 team balance: Ponting

Symonds was sent home in disgrace over drinking and disciplinary issues on Thursday, two days before Australia's first match of the tournament, which the West Indies won by seven wickets.

The Australians were then dumped out of the competition following Monday's six-wicket loss to Sri Lanka.

"It upset a lot of our structures around the team. Andrew is one of those guys that's just been over in the IPL for the last couple of months. He's one of the best individual players in this form of the game anywhere in the world, so when you lose someone like that out of your side it does throw a spanner in the works for sure," the Herald Sun quoted Ponting, as saying.

But he refused to use Symonds' absence to explain Australia's disappointing performance.

"We're not going to use that as a reason or as an excuse. We had 14 other guys here that had to step up in his absence. We've been able to do that and good enough to do that in the past when we've lost some of our better players out of the side and over the last few days we haven't been good enough," Ponting said.

"I haven't actually heard any talk about Symo not being around over the last few days, so I would like to think that that hasn't played on the minds of any of our players. But when you lose someone of the quality and the calibre of him out of the T20 team, it certainly leaves a big hole," The Australian quoted him, as saying.

Bad Time But Not Affect Ashes confidence: Ponting

Sri Lanka became the second team to beat Australia in three days with a six-wicket triumph at Trent Bridge and Ponting's side have now lost 13 of their 23 Twenty20 clashes.

They must now start preparing for a five-Test series against England starting in Cardiff on July 8.

"It's my job to make sure we get over this pretty quickly and start focusing on the red balls and white clothing over the next couple of months," Ponting told reporters.

"I certainly won't be focusing on the negative stuff that has happened over the last couple of days.

"It's about looking at the positives we have created with our test team over the last few months. I like to think that none of this will linger around.

"Being in England there is no better place to be as the excitement and atmosphere at the start of an Ashes is going to be tremendous and if we can get caught up in that there won't be any negatives hanging around from the last few days."

UNEXPECTED PRACTICE

The Australians' next match is on June 24 against Sussex, so they have 15 days, based mainly in Leicester, to prepare and Ponting said the practice time may yet be an advantage.

"I guess it can't hinder us to have more time with the red balls out and preparing for the longer form of the game, while England play Twenty20 for at least another week so maybe that is one thing we can take from our time at Leicester," Ponting said.

"I've never been a big believer in taking one series to another, particularly when it's different forms of the game. We have a vast changeover of players coming over for the Ashes and when they get here we will build on from the very good stuff we did in South Africa."

Despite his attempts to put a positive spin on Australia's elimination from cricket's premier 20-over event, Ponting did not try to hide from his team's vulnerabilities in that format of the game.

"I would love to be able to tell you what's going wrong as that's five international Twenty20 games we have lost in a row and that's a worrying trend for our team," he added. "We've got some thinking to do there's no doubt about that.

"We will have a chat about where our Twenty20 cricket is at tonight and then we have got to move on from it pretty quickly because we've got some test matches just around the corner and our test team has been our shining light recently."