Australia’s Ricky Ponting was determined to carry on as captain despite his team’s Ashes series defeat in England and could even return for another attempt in 2013, he said after arriving home on Wednesday.
“I still think i have got a lot to offer the team, as a batsman and as a captain and as a leader,” Ponting told reporters at Sydney airport. “If it ends up getting to the point where i am not the captain, my hunger and determination to keep playing this game are as good as ever.”
His captaincy has since come under scrutiny in sports-mad Australia, which has basked in its cricket team’s dominance of the game for the better part of two decades. Ponting is the first Australia captain in more than a century to lose two Ashes series in England after the hosts won the fifth test in London by 197 runs on Sunday, giving Andrew Strauss’s team a 2-1 series victory.
“I have got to worry about the next 12 or 18 months and see if all that hunger and commitment is still there,” added Ponting. “Right at the moment it most definitely is. It is probably higher right now than ever before. I would love to go back and give it (the Ashes in England) one more crack. Who knows, 2013 might be something achievable.”
Ponting, who is home for 10 days before he returns for the final four one-day internationals in England, said his desire to continue playing was high even if the selectors decided to split the captaincy or continue to pick him just as a senior player.
“Could i play on without being captain? Absolutely,” Ponting said.