Ponting announces retirement from international cricket

Ponting with the urn after the Ashes whitewash

Ricky Ponting has announced his retirement from international cricket before the third test against South Africa at the WACA in Perth. Its the same ground that Ponting made his test debut on in 1995. Ponting announced that he would retire after the third test.

The decision came as a surprise to most of the Aussie squad including long time teammate and current captain Michael Clarke, who could scarcely hide the tears. Ponting led Australia admirably winning two World Cups as captain as well as a 5-0 whitewash of England during the 2006-07 Ashes series. Ponting himself could not hide his emotion and for a man who normally shows no feeling, was teary eyed. He said that the reasons for his retirement were personal rather than for the team as he was not performing up to the standards that he had set for himself.

Ponting led a long and distinguished career scoring over 10,000 runs in both test and ODI's. He was also captain of Australia during their most successful period as the no.1 ranked team in world cricket. The retirement of several key players has diminished the domination that Australia had and Ponting now becomes the last player from the winning team of '99 to retire.