Ponting felt absolutely dejected when watching his arch-rivals lift the Ashes urn in 2005

Veteran Australia batsman Ricky Ponting has revealed his greatest and worst moment as captain of the national team in an exclusive interview with cricketing legend Ian Chappell.

When asked what his greatest moment as Australia captain was, Ponting noted that it was when the national team hammered South Africa in front of their home fans in the first two Tests at Durban.

Some people may see this as a bit of a cheeky move since Australia are set to play South Africa in a three-Test series, in which the world number one Test team ranking will be up for grabs.

“I think the greatest satisfaction I’ve had as a captain anyway was walking off the field in South Africaa few years ago. We won the first two Tests really well. I remember walking off the field in Durban, and I remember thinking, I’m just going to walk 10 or 15 metres ahead of the boys, I’m going to stand on the boundary and look at the faces on the way off. You had guys like Hughes and McDonald with their arms around each other,” Ponting said.

Ponting added: “seeing the joy they got out of winning a test series like that, was probably my proudest moment.”

However, as any captain will tell you, there is always that moment when you wish you weren’t in charge any more, and in Ponting’s case this happened to be during the 2005 Ashes series when England defeated Australia for the first time since 1987.

“Losing the Ashes series as a captain, that’s been the biggest disappointment. And probably, the ’05 Ashes series was my biggest letdown. We went over there with an excellent team and were just outplayed by an emerging English team at the time, I think any time you lose an Ashes series, especially with the hype and build-up surrounding it and the pride we have as Australians playing against England, that’s always hard to take,” Ponting added.