Ponting named Australia’s T20I assistant coach

Melbourne, Jan 9  Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has been named the assistant coach for the Twenty20 International tri-series against New Zealand and England, it was announced on Tuesday.

Australia will face New Zealand on February 3 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the first game of the series and the final will be played on February 21 in Auckland.

“There’s a fair bit of talk about splitting the (head coach) roles up and I’m just delighted my name is one that’s come up for that permanent role down the track,” Ponting was quoted as saying by Cricket.com.au.

“But we’ll wait and see how this goes first. I know I’d enjoy it if I had the opportunity to do it and if I could make it work in with the other commitments I have and with family time,” he added.

Ponting praised current coach Darren Lehmann and said the two will enjoy working together.

“We’re great mates. We enjoyed batting together and we enjoyed playing together, so I’ve no doubt at all we’ll enjoy working together as coach and assistant coach,” he said.

“I’ve got a bit of a coaching bug, I love being around the game and being around the best players and I love being able to feel like you’ve got some impact on the way they play their cricket.

“It’s very much an assistant’s role, Darren is obviously the head coach and hopefully we can work well together,” Ponting added.

IANS