Ponting says putting team’s interests ahead led to his ODI demise

Sydney: Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes that he paid the ultimate price as an international one-day player because he put the national team ahead of himself.

Speaking with media after recently being made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to Australian cricket, Ponting still believes that he has lots to offer to the team picked to tour Ireland and England next month. Ponting was dumped from the one-day team when he scored 18 runs in five matches in the triangular series involving Sri Lanka and India. The last of his 375 appearances in the one-day arena was as skipper in the 110-run win over India in Brisbane. “I have no doubt I had more to offer the team. At the end of the Tests, there was no doubt there were guys needing a rest. I think we`d played 15 Tests up until that point and that`s a lot, let alone all the one-dayers,” a daily quoted him, as saying. “More importantly, the way I trained and how hard I had to work leading up to that Test series - and through that Test series - [I just] had a couple of days off and went straight into the one-day series,” he added. ``I didn`t play well, but I did what Cricket Australia wanted me to do and came back and captained the team for a couple of games, and then I was out of the side,” Ponting said. “They (Cricket Australia) had their direction leading into the World Cup and that was fine by me … but I would still back myself against any player in Australia as far as that [form of the] game is concerned,” he said. Ponting said retirement hadn`t entered his mind and his desire to play on was reaffirmed by conversations with former teammates. ``Past players I`ve spoken to, like Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, said they reached a point where they knew it was time, and I honestly haven`t reached that point where I think I don`t have anything left to offer,`` the 37-year-old Tasmanian said. ``I think Gilly reached the stage where his game wasn`t where it needed to be, but he couldn`t find it in himself to train hard enough to get back. I`ve trained harder in the last four or five years than I have in my career - and I enjoy it,” Ponting said. ANI