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I have achieved a lot as captain: Ponting

September 23, 2009 09:54 IST

Despite suffering a humiliating Ashes defeat and facing several ups and downs during his captaincy in the recent past, Australia cricket captain Ricky Ponting believes that he has achieved a lot as the skipper of the Oz team.

Regretting the two consecutive Ashes defeats in England, Ponting said his record still speaks for his performance.

"I will be remembered as the guy that lost the Ashes twice in a row in England, but if you look at other things I've been able to achieve as captain, a lot of it hasn't been achieved in the game before," Punter said.

ricky pontingPonting said he hope people would remember him for his brilliant stint at captaincy and the outstanding results and not for the failures.

"We won two consecutive World Cups without losing a single game. 16 consecutive Test wins. A whitewash against England at home last time, and nearly doing something that hasn't been done in the history of the game, which was to win a seven-match one-day series.

"They are the sort of things that aren't spoken about much. A lot at the moment is talking about things that haven't been as successful," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted the Oz captain, who has the second best record as captain, as saying.

Ponting has won 39 Tests and lost only 11, marginally behind Steve Waugh's stupendous 41-9 record.

England tour one of most enjoyable ever despite Ashes loss  

Meanwhile, Ponting has said he enjoyed the England tour despite it being a tough one.

Ponting described the tour as one of the most enjoyable visit for him despite suffering a shocking defeat in the Ashes.

"This has probably been, if not the most enjoyable, one of the most enjoyable tours I''ve been on - and we lost a series as well," Ponting was quoted as saying.

"I've enjoyed it from the start until the last ball was bowled. There was a lot made of the booing stuff, and all that took place early on. That wasn't a big deal as far as I was concerned. I've enjoyed the contest that was on the field with England," Punter added.

Comparing the 2005 Ashes defeat with the recent drubbing, Ponting said the humiliation in 2005 was more shattering, simply because of the fact that at that time the squad was pretty strong when compared to the current team, which has plenty of new comers.

"This was different to 2005 - which was really shattering. That side we had, to lose that series was really shattering. This time, yes, I was very disappointed we weren't good enough but this should really hold us in good stead for the future," said Ponting.

Looking back at the Ashes, he said it was the batting that let the side down.

"Our batting was the most experienced fact of our team play and it was our batting, on a couple of occasions, that let us down," Punter stressed.

He said players lacked experience and failed to acclimatize to English conditions.

"We weren't ready for the conditions. The key to consistency is a bit of knowledge, some experience. That lack of knowledge and experience brought us undone in a couple of sessions, getting bowled out cheaply when we were 0-80 and 0-130," he said.

Source: ANI