I’m not going to interfere in Sydney Ashes Test: Ponting

SYDNEY - Injured Australian captain Ricky Ponting has said he would be at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the fifth Ashes Test, but would keep his distance from the team, so as not to undermine stand-in captain Michael Clarke’s leadership.

“I’ll be around [but] I’m not going to interfere in anything else,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting, as saying.

“It’s not my job now that I’m not playing the game. Someone else is going to come into my spot and someone else is going to be captain, so it’s important they do things their way.”

“I’ll be around the rooms and having treatment and doing that sort of stuff, but otherwise it’s for me to stay out of the way and let the boys hopefully go about a really good week for Australia,” he added.

Ponting was ruled out of the match after x-rays on his broken finger showed that the fracture had moved during this week’s fourth Test loss at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The 36-year-old’s withdrawal from the team ends his streak of consecutive Tests at 72, the fifth-most by an Australian.

Australia currently trails the five-match series 2-1, with the final Test to be played in Sydney from January 2. (ANI)