Ricky Ponting has heaped more pressure on injured Michael Clarke by criticising the Australia skipper in his autobiography.
Clarke’s long-standing back injury is threatening to rule him out of the Ashes when the series starts at Brisbane on November 21 but it is his pride that will be hurting today after former captain Ponting said that between 2008-10 his deputy was “moving in a different world to the rest of us”.
In his book, The Close Of Play, he added: “It never worried me if a bloke didn’t want a drink in the dressing room, but I did wonder about blokes who didn’t see the value in sticking around for a chat and a post-mortem on the day’s play.
“This was the time when we could revel in our success, pick up the blokes who were struggling, and acknowledge the guys who were at the peak of their powers. Pup hardly bought into this tradition for a couple of years and the team noticed.”
Ponting also said: “It wasn’t that he was disruptive or treacherous... but he had never been one to get too involved in planning sessions or debriefs at the end of a day’s play, or to volunteer to take on any of my workload.”
