Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has given his backing to Ricky Ponting following his latest Ashes defeat.
Jones calls for Warne to return to lead Australia
Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has given his backing to Ricky Ponting after the current skipper went down to his second successive Ashes loss on English soil.
Sunday's defeat in the fifth Test at The Oval consigned the tourists to back-to-back 2-1 Ashes defeats in England.
The result also means Ponting now has the unwanted record of becoming the first Australia captain to lose two Ashes series in England in 119 years.
However Chappell, who captained his country from 1971-75, believes Ponting has coped admirably amid the retirements of a number of star players.
Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden were all notable absentees from the recent tour and Chappell believes sacking Ponting from his post would be a knee-jerk reaction.
"Overall I thought he did a pretty fair job as a captain," Chappell told the
Cricinfo website.
"And when you consider the turnover of very good players that he has had under his captaincy - no other Australian captain has had to cope with that."
Tactically astute
"Now is not the right time to sack Ponting as captain.
"For starters if you sack him you will probably lose your best batsman because I don't think he would want to continue if he was sacked as captain. But the most important thing is I don't believe that he deserves to be sacked as captain, he's still the best man for the job."
But former Test batsman Dean Jones believes leg-spin great Warne, widely regarded as one of the most tactically astute players never to captain Australia, could be tempted out of retirement to lead the team.
Warne was the first bowler to take 700 Test wickets and showed off his leadership skills with successful spells in charge of both Hampshire and 2008 Indian Premier League champions Rajasthan Royals.
"Ask Shane Warne to come out of retirement just for two years, then give it to Michael Clarke," Jones said.
"A lot of people might be thinking 'that's stupid' but it will take him two months, three months to get himself fit, just let him play the Test matches and, I tell you what, he would do it in a heartbeat.
"I don't think they'll do that, I don't think they'll go that far but it'll be an option, I tell you, that'll be looked at."
