Ricky Ponting Retires from ODI; Hopes to Play 2013 Ashes

Ricky Ponting, Australia's most successful one-day cricketer, accepted that his limited overs international career was over on Tuesday but said he wanted to continue in test cricket and hoped to play in the 2013 Ashes.

While Don Bradman remains Australia's greatest ever cricketer, Ponting is without peer in the 50-over game having scored 13,704 runs in 375 matches at an average of 42.

He won three World Cups in his 17-year career, two as captain.

The end for the second-most prolific batsman of all time in limited overs internationals was signalled when he was dropped from the Australia team on Monday after making 18 runs in five games in the ongoing Tri-series against India and Sri Lanka.

Ponting said he had spoken to chairman of selectors John Inverarity, who told him he was not in the plans for the future direction of the team looking forward to the 2015 World Cup.

It's a bit hard to say I've retired given I've been dropped but I don't expect to play one-day international cricket anymore and I'm sure the selectors don't expect to pick me either, the 37-year-old told a news conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground. I have been dropped, which is disappointing but I accept that. My performances over the last five games haven't warranted me being there, he added.

Ponting, who said the decision to drop him had come out of the blue, said he wanted to continue playing test matches, a format in which he has scored 13,200 runs in 162 matches at an average of 53.

This is closure on my one-day international career but it's certainly not closure on my international career, said Ponting, who retired from Twenty20s in 2009. I just love the game and I just love every opportunity I have to play for my country, he added.

Ponting, who relinquished the captaincy of both tests and one-day teams last March, was under pressure for his place in the test team at the end of last year but responded with 544 runs at an average of 108 as the hosts whitewashed India 4-0.

I think I proved to a lot of people this summer that I can still play great cricket for Australia and be as good as anybody on the cricket field, he said. That's what I'm planning to do for the next period of time and how long that is, I don't know.

ASHES REDEMPTION

Australia play England in back-to-back Ashes series in 2013-14 and Ponting, who has captained his country to defeats in three of the last four series, said he would love to have the chance to earn redemption.

It would be great to go back to the Ashes, if I'm a good enough player, it would be great to go back there one more time to England and have a few better memories than I've had the last couple of times, he said.

Ponting made his ODI debut against South Africa in 1995 in a team that also included Mark Taylor, Steve and Mark Waugh, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

Soon moving up the order to make the number three spot his own, Ponting's aggressive batting became a key component in one of the most dominant teams in the short history of the 50-overs game.

Australia lost the final of the 1996 World Cup to Sri Lanka but won the 1999, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, going undefeated in 29 successive matches in the process.

Ponting said his powerhouse innings of 140 not out from 121 balls with four fours and eight sixes in the 2003 final against India had probably been the best moment of his cricket life.

I've been lucky to be part of a lot of great teams, to play in five World Cups, to play in four World Cup finals, they're very, very fond memories, he said.

To play the 2003 World Cup, to go through that undefeated and have some success in the final was amazing. Some of these things we've achieved since I've been in the one-day team have been pretty remarkable. Those things don't happy every day, he concluded.