Departing Ponting defends his Australian captaincy

The 36-year-old made his announcement at a press conference in Sydney, days after arriving back in Australia following his side’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to co-hosts India.

He intends to play on for Australia and predicted his form could improve without the pressure of the captaincy, while Ponting also backed Michael Clarke to take on the leadership role.

Despite being Test cricket’s most successful captain of all-time, and Australia’s most prolific run-scorer, Ponting still had to field questions about the three Ashes series defeats he suffered while in charge.

He said: “I’d like to think that through my playing time I’ve achieved a whole lot more than that. Whether that be as a player or as a captain of this side.

“It’s funny how we talk about losing the Ashes three times.

“Playing in three World Cup-winning teams never comes up very often, winning 16 consecutive Test matches doesn’t come up very often, winning 30-odd consecutive World Cup games doesn’t come up very often, but that’s the world we live in.

“I know within myself and my team-mates know and everyone at Cricket Australia knows what I’ve been able to achieve in the game, and that’s what I’m very proud of.

“The things that I’ve been able to achieve as a captain and as a player and with the players that I’ve played with are memories that I’ll never forget.”

Minutes earlier, Ponting had confirmed the anticipated news of his resignation, after nine years as one-day captain and seven years as Test skipper.

He said: “I’ve had the chance to think long and hard about it and today I’ve decided to stand down as captain of the test team and the one-day team as of now.

“The main reason for me with that is that I think it’s the right time - getting through the Ashes series the way that we did and the World Cup now being over.

“I wanted to make sure I gave the next captain every opportunity I possibly could to make sure he had enough experience going forward into the next couple of big events that we play, which will be the one-day Champions Trophy within two years and of course an Ashes series coming up in 2013-14, so I just felt it was an opportune time.

“The possibility of me being around for either of those series is probably remote as well so I just thought the timing was spot-on.”

Ponting’s leadership came under scrutiny after the latest Ashes defeat to England.

Defeat to India last week, when Ponting returned to form with the bat by hitting a century, also ended Australia’s run of three consecutive world crowns - the last two of which were secured under Ponting’s captaincy.

Vice-captain Clarke is expected to be confirmed as the new Test and one-day international captain, and Ponting see him as ideal for the role.

“Absolutely. I totally think that’s the way it’ll go,” Ponting said.

“I totally would endorse Michael Clarke as captain.”

Ponting stressed he had not been pushed to resign.

“I’ve had no tap on the shoulder from anybody,” he said. “This has been a decision made by me.”