SYDNEY – Ricky Ponting on Monday welcomed an upcoming review of Australian cricket following his side’s Ashes drubbing, saying the whole structure of the game needed to be examined. Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said on Friday that the game would undergo a thorough review of all facets following the humiliating 3-1 Test series loss to fierce rivals England. Writing in The Australian newspaper, Ponting said any review needed to go beyond Test cricket and study all levels of the game.
“There is a review after every season, of which I’m always a big part,” Ponting wrote. “I understand there will be a lot more involved in the review this time around and rightly so. “It’s going to be a lot more in-depth than I’ve ever been involved in and probably as big as those conducted when Australia was really struggling in the mid-80s.”
The beleaguered skipper, who had a miserable series with the bat, said despite Australia’s much-lauded domestic Sheffield Shield competition, the country was not producing enough Test-quality players. “The performance of the elite team over the past few weeks has been very disappointing,” he wrote. “But I think it’s important we look a fair bit deeper into Australian cricket than just the last couple of weeks. “It’s going to be really interesting to see what the review brings up. “I think the whole structure of Australian cricket needs looking at.”
