Ponting believes Cricket Australia need to prove that the rotation policy is having positive effects

Cricket Australia’s rotation policy has drawn a lot of criticism from former players like Shane Warne and Brett Lee, but it has also been supported and defended by captain Michael Clarke and coach Mickey Arthur.

Ex-skipper Ricky Ponting has now got involved in the debate, stating that “I’m totally for” the policy and added that players nowadays need breaks from time to time given the fact that they are playing three different formats.

Ponting himself stated that the tremendous workload was one of the key reasons why he decided to retire from international cricket and added that Cricket Australia should try to prove and explain to the public what the benefits of the policy are.

“The rotational thing… I’m totally for it,” Ponting told Inside Cricket. “The thing we have to understand is that the people who are making these decisions are making them for the right reasons, and they’re making them for the betterment they think of the team and the betterment of individual players there and then at the time.

“I made some decisions in my career, to retire from T20 cricket when I did, to be as fresh as I could be for every one-day game and every Test match I played. Some of the guys, or most of the guys, in this current team are playing all three forms of the game and IPL and Champions League. They’re playing a lot of cricket. So I can understand why the public would at some times be disappointed that our best players aren’t playing every game, but I really think it is impossible to expect that our best players do play every game.”

Ponting also looked at other sports and noted that star players don’t always start or play matches.

“If you look at Manchester United or the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan probably didn’t start in every game the Chicago Bulls played, and Wayne Rooney and those guys don’t start, certainly don’t play every game Manchester United play,” Ponting said.”But I think an educational process should be put in place to let the sponsors, the people who are covering the game and the fans understand what’s actually going to happen before the day the team is announced.”

Rather than rant about all the new age sports science Cricket Australia seem to rely so heavily on when selecting squads, Ponting stated that it was good to see the board, national selectors and coaches all have increased knowledge about fitness and how the game impacts players, which was something that was not very common when he made his first-class debut in 1992.

“These days, it’s all about the athlete and everything that’s happening with sports science around the Australian cricket team is to try and get the best out of each one of our players,” Ponting said. “I know there’ll be arguments at the moment suggesting that what we’re doing is not working or we should go back to the way it was 10 or 15 years ago. But I’ve been around and seen it all and I think the track we’re on is definitely the right one.

“We need to be giving every young player the best chance to be everything they can be and hopefully on Wednesday, you’ll see the boys bounce back; and when we get to India, you’ll see them play some great cricket there, and it’d be great to see the Test team win the Ashes back as well. If they do that, then a lot of the critics, a lot of the things being talked about around Australian cricket at the moment, will be silenced.”