Chappell brothers at loggerhead over Ponting’s captaincy

MELBOURNE - Australia’s Chappell brothers, Ian and Greg, are at loggerhead over Ricky Ponting’s captaincy.

While Ian feels Ponting’s captaincy is “hurting” the Australian team, Greg, currently a selector in Cricket Australia, wants him to continue for another couple of years.

“(Mitchell) Johnson’s epic resurgence should not camouflage the fact that Ponting’s captaincy has started to hurt the Australian team,” Ian wrote in his column in Cricinfo.

“In what appears to be an attempt to prove the critics wrong, Ponting has become impatient for success and his constant changes to the field placings only served to distract the bowlers from their task,” he added.

“He looks like a captain trying too hard to prove he is worthy, rather than a steady one with a firm grip on the levers.”

Greg, however, thinks there is no one in the current side who can replace Ponting.

“If we are going to replace Ricky, we have got to make sure we have got someone that we are confident with and has the right frame of mind. Someone who can take over and do a good job,” Greg told Channel Nine.

“And I do not know that we have got somebody that we feel we want to rush Ponting out the door at this moment. There is nobody absolutely ready for it and I do not think there are too many other players too who I would like to put the pressure on.”

Proposing the name of a future captain, Ian refers the name of wicket-keeper batsman Brad Haddin if natural successor Michael Clarke does not find form in the remainder of the series.

“If Clarke does continue to struggle, Australia could be forced to deviate from their time-honoured method of choosing a long-term captain,” Ian wrote.

“If they opt for a stop-gap captain, Haddin would be a good choice. He has already had some success as captain of New South Wales, and he is a good, aggressive cricketer with an eye for what keeps the game moving forward.

He is also brutally frank about his own performance and if he adopted similar principles as captain he would be on the right track.”

However, Greg sees an able leader in Ponting. “I would love Ricky Ponting to be there for the next couple of years as we bring other batters through, he’s a good leader.

“You would have to think very long and hard before you got rid of that resource.”