Ponting favours Clarke as his successor

Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting backed middle order batsman Michael Clarke as his 'obvious' successor to lead the world champion side.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting has backed middle order batsman Michael Clarke as his “obvious” successor to lead the world champion side.

Ponting, who will become 33 next month, wants to continue playing at least till the next World Cup to be held in the sub-continent and he is aware of the fact that many senior members of the side — like Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Mike Hussey — may retire in near future.

“I am not going to be around forever,” Ponting was quoted as saying by Herald Sun.

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“Gilly is not going to be around forever. We have to start building the next generation of leaders around the team and (Clarke) is the obvious choice. People have been talking him up as the next skipper and all that sort of stuff.

“We all hope that is the case and he keeps improving his game. If he does he will be one of the leading players in the world,” Ponting said.

Former Australia coach John Buchanan said Clarke’s development as a captain would get a boost if he was made the skipper of New South Wales side.

But Ponting said the NSW captaincy was not the only thing which would help Clarke grow as a leader.

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“I don’t think it’s 100 per cent that he needs to captain NSW but I was lucky the year before I got the Australian one-day captaincy that I had a year captaining Tassie as well.

“I got a little bit of experience under my belt. The important thing, and I was taught this as a young bloke, is when you are out on the field, you try and think as a captain and as a leader.

“Hopefully I will create an environment that is good enough for those guys, if they have got an idea or a suggestion, they come running to me,” Ponting said.

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