PTI, Melbourne, Mar 26: Embattled Australian captain Ricky Ponting got some much-needed support from former team coach John Buchanan who said the two-time World Cup winning skipper still has an 'incredible amount' to offer Australian cricket.
Buchanan, who was coach of the Australian team in the 2003 and 2007 World Cup, said Ponting, who responded to the criticism with a fighting hundred in the quarterfinal loss to India last night, needed better support at the top level.
'Ricky still has an incredible amount to offer Australian cricket, but at the same stage he has to be in the right frame of mind to do that,' Buchanan told 'ABC Online'.
'I think for the last 18 months or so that hasn't been the case because he has, in a sense, tried to take on too much responsibility for the whole team - his game play as well as his all-round leadership.
'I'm disappointed at other people around him, basically people in senior formal leadership roles, who have allowed him to do that. And I think that has contributed to making life very difficult for him in the role,' he added.
Buchanan said Ponting had been let down by the top leadership of Australian cricket.
'Better leadership from other people around him might have guided him in a slightly different direction. I will leave it to people to interpret a little bit, but I will just say people in other formal leadership roles in and around the team,' he said.
'Ponting's job was to captain and lead by example, rather than build a side, its culture and selection matters. That is what we saw last night.
'He was able to have his energies directed to one game ... so all the thinking about how you are going to develop a side and build a culture and selections here and selections there, were irrelevant,' he added.
'I think therefore there is a range of other people who relied on him to do more of the other work - building a team, building a culture, looking at selection - which are things that he has carried and felt very personally involved with, but I think are much bigger than he anticipated and that he should not have been allowed to burden himself with.'