Michael Clarke and Simon Katich throw their weight behind Ricky Ponting
Ever since Ricky Ponting lost the Ashes to England, his supporters had increased manifold and now his teammates Michael Clarke and Simon Katich insist that the Aussies let him down in the lost Ashes.
“I see Ricky as our leader, I don’t think it’s something  we have to worry about at this stage. Punt’s playing fantastic cricket in all forms of the  game, I think his series in the Ashes was very good once  again. To me, we don’t have to worry about that because Ricky  is our captain,” he was quoted as saying by the ‘Sydney  Morning Herald‘.
He further added, “I’ve learnt a hell of a lot from Ricky already, since  I’ve played international cricket and especially since I’ve  been vice-captain. I hope that relationship continues, the  relationship is very good. He is someone I look up to,” he  added.
Australian opener Simon Katich said the players let him down by failing to perform at  crucial moments. “We probably let him (Ponting) down. We all had  opportunities to help him get the right result and we didn’t  do that,” Katich said at a Bradman Foundation lunch to  celebrate the legend’s 101st birth anniversary.
“I guess, having been involved in 2005, I thought I’d let  him and the team down then… this time around, even though  the tour went a bit better, I still feel there were things  that I could have done better to have helped us win Test  matches – and unfortunately I’m going to live to regret that,”  Katich was quoted as saying in the Australian media.
Clarke, who is in-charge of the Australian ODI team in  the absence of Ponting said, “I’m blessed to get this opportunity when he’s not here  to get that fill-in role, but Punter’s our leader and I’m more  than happy to continue playing under him. In my opinion he’s  certainly one of the best leaders I’ve played under.”
The Australian vice-captain also felt it was unfair to  single out Ponting because the entire squad had accepted  responsibility for the 2-1 loss to England.
“I think the criticism needs to go to the team, and we  all need to accept that. But I know it’s not one person’s  fault. Ricky’s been a fantastic leader throughout my whole  career. I thought he was inspirational at times during this  Ashes series, he wanted to win as much as anybody”, he said.
“The one thing Punt’s always said is that it’s part of  the responsibility as a leader and as a senior player, we are  going to be more responsible if we don’t perform.
“That’s another great strength of Ricky’s: he does cop it  on the chin. He never lets that get in the way of his  leadership. It’s obviously part of the job, it’s part of being  a senior player in any good sporting team,” he said.
Katich, who has played 43 Tests, said Australia had many  good players but they failed at crucial moments.
The big positive for Ponting is the support that he is receiving post Ashes and as a viewer who watched all the Tests of this year’s Ashes, I can say that Australia lost the urn more than England winning it. It would have easily been 2-2 had those interruptions not taken place in the first Test at Cardiff. But then, cricket forever will be a funny game.
