Ponting to skip IPL

Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has decided he will skip this years IPL to concentrate on national commitments. My country comes first and there was no way I could give my all for Australia if I used the only two-week break we have to go and play in India, Ponting wrote in his column in The Australian.

I have been talking with my team,the Kolkata Knight Riders,for a month or two now and in the end my only choice was to withdraw from the 2009 competition, he said. The franchise has been fantastic about the whole thing and I want to thank them for their understanding, he wrote. Ponting also said he could have played in the IPL for two weeks but said it would have been unfair on both Knight Riders and the national team.