Ponting aspires to captain Australia till he retires

MELBOURNE - Ricky Ponting has said that he wants captain Australia until the day he retires, but is prepared to step aside if there is a better candidate for the job.

“It’s certainly not in my contract that I’m going to be captain until I’m finished. If I consider there’s somewhere better out there for the job than me, I’ll happily step aside,” the Courier Mail quoted Ponting, as saying.

“If there’s someone better to bat at number three, I’ll happily move down the order. But right at the moment, I honestly feel I’m the best equipped to do both of those jobs,” he added.

Asked if he envisaged playing under a different captain, Ponting said: “I’d like to think not. Because that would mean things haven’t gone the way I would have liked with my captaincy or my batting.”

Ponting further suggested that he might consider quitting if he had a poor series.

He also claimed that he has forgiven Shane Warne for his critical Twitter comments, but cares little for former Australian paceman Geoff Lawson’s belief that Michael Clarke should replace him at Test captain.

“One of them is a mate of mine, one I’ve played a lot of cricket with and one I’ve got a lot of respect for. The other one, I don’t really care too much about what he has to say. We are grown men, we’re mates, nothing has changed there,” he added. (ANI)