Australian bench strength is weak: Ponting

SYDNEY - Australia’s bench strength is weak, captain Ricky Ponting said on Thursday, a day after his team lost the Ashes to England at the MCG.

“Maybe we have not got as deep a pool of talent to pick from that we have had in previous years,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting, as saying.

“That happens at different times. I am a big believer in the cycle. You look back 20 years or 30 years, we were one of the worst cricket nations in the world. We have not been a powerhouse of world cricket forever,” he added.

“We have to look at the structures that we used to get ourselves to where we got to being as dominant as we were for such a period of time. It is important we look at all those things and pay the ultimate attention to them and try to develop a pool of players once again so we have ready-made international players to pick from,” he said further.

“There is a great challenge there for everyone involved in Australian cricket to do that, and I am a big part of that. I look forward to doing whatever I can do to get these young guys to develop into better international players,” he said. (ANI)