 |
Ponting’s one-day international career over |
Ponting announces ODI retirement
Australia's former captain Ricky Ponting does not expect to play international one-day cricket again after he was dropped from the team on Monday but would continue to be available for Test matches, he said on Tuesday.
The 37-year-old is the second most prolific batsman of all time in limited overs internationals, scoring 13,704 runs in 375 matches since his debut in 1995.
The Tasmanian was dropped from the Australia team because of poor form on Monday with selectors strongly indicating that his career in one-day internationals was all but over.
Ponting, who had made just 18 runs in five games in the ongoing Tri-series against India and Sri Lanka, said he had spoken to chairman of selectors John Inverarity who told him he was not in the plans for the future direction of the team looking to the 2015 World Cup.
"I have been dropped, which is disappointing but I accept that. My performances over the last five games haven't warranted me being there," Ponting told a media conference.
"John has been pretty clear on the reasons why and the direction they are heading with the one-day team and I am not part of their plans.
"It's a bit hard to say I've retired given I've been dropped but I don't expect to play one-day international cricket any more and I'm sure the selectors don't expect to pick me either."
Ponting said he wanted to continue playing test matches. "I will continue playing Test cricket and cricket for Tasmania as well. I think I've proven to everyone and myself I'm still capable of dominating after my form in the series against India and I'm looking forward to playing the last few shield games for Tasmania," he added.
Ponting also admitted that he had to work harder than other players to get his body and mind in sync for the rigors of International cricket in the last few months.
"My body has been able to get through the rigors of this summer really well and I think my mind has just been a little bit behind where my body's been," he said. "When you're not as sharp as you need to be at international level, then you can expect you're not going to play as well as you like either. The thing with the Test summer for me, yes I spent a lot of time in the middle and yes I made a lot of runs, but the work I had to do outside to get my game back to where it was towards the end of the Test series, I've had to work harder than ever in my career and I worked harder than everybody else in the Australian team right through the last 12 months. At some stage that was going to catch up with me and I think just being not quite as sharp as I needed to be at the start of the one day series has played a bit of a part in why I haven't scored those runs."
Talking about leading the ODI side in the absence of Michael Clarke in the CB Series, Ponting said that he did it because it was the best thing for the side at that moment.
"I honestly felt deep down that it was best for the team that I took that role on and tried to get the team through the last couple of games in the best way possible. With the amount of experience I had it was probably a pretty easy decision. I captained nearly 170 games, so it was going to come a bit easier to me than it was going to come to someone who had never captained international cricket before. I took that on, almost put my neck on the line a little bit for the team, but that's what I've always done and that's what I'll always continue to do."
Ponting also was clear with the fact that he was closer to the end of his career but maintained that he'll go out from Tests too without much fanfare.
"The passion for the international game of cricket for me has not died or changed one little bit. I still don't see a finish line as far as my international career is concerned. Now that one-day cricket isn't there any more we all know that day is coming closer and closer for me. I don't think I'm the sort of person who is going to want to have a massive farewell series. I'll make a decision when I think that I can't contribute to winning games for Australia," he said.
