Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has revealed that he had doubts about Michael Clarke after he was named his successor for the Baggy Green.
The 38-year-old from Tasmania, who was one of Australia's most successful skippers from 2004 until he stepped down in 2011, said that the 32-year-old did not care for engaging in post-match drinks and team bonding during his time in charge.
"It never worried me if a bloke didn't want a drink in the dressing room, but I did wonder about blokes who didn't see the value in sticking around for a chat and a laugh and a post-mortem on the day's play," Reuters quotes Ponting as saying.
"This was the time when we could revel in our success, pick up the blokes who were struggling, and acknowledge the guys who were at the peak of their powers. Pup hardly bought into this tradition for a couple of years and the team noticed.
"His official reign as Australian captain started on a high, with ODI wins in Bangladesh and ODI and Test wins in Sri Lanka, and he quickly took his batting to a new level, to the point that it seemed he could almost score big hundreds at will.
However, Ponting now concedes that he may have been wrong about the 32-year-old, who had led with distinction since taking over the reins in 2011.
"He now seemed happy to take on the planning, media and administrative duties that he'd veered away from when he was vice-captain and the mood in the Aussie dressing room was positive," he said. "Perhaps I'd been wrong to be so concerned for so long."
Ponting officially retired from international Test cricket in November last year with 13,378 from his 169 matches, which included 41 century knocks and 62 half-centuries.
