Clarke says he will remain friends with Ponting despite his axing from Oz ODI squad

Melbourne, Feb 24(ANI): Australian captain Michael Clarke has said that he will continue working with veteran batsman Ricky Ponting as a team-mate despite being a party to a tough decision to axe the latter from the one- day squad.

"I'm 100 per cent part of the selection panel. That's now part of the captain's job. We've made this decision as a panel. It is tough not having the great Ricky Ponting out there playing for us but that's the decision we've made. Obviously the 2015 World Cup is something we have spoken about as a panel. I'm 100 per cent part of that," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Clarke, as saying.

"Ricky was captain for a long time and while he wasn't a selector he played a big part in selecting the 11 players that took the field. I remember getting dropped after the Test match against the West Indies and Punter was the one who came up and told me I hadn't been selected. He certainly knows it's not personal. I'm very confident our friendship is a lot stronger than that," he added.

Clarke said he hoped Ponting would play "a lot more Test cricket", but added that Ponting's exit from the one-day format implied that senior players in the squad would have to stand up and fill the breach.

'I've been great friends with Punter for a long time and that certainly won't change. But I've also played a lot of one-day cricket with him and it's going to feel really weird looking around the field and not seeing him there," Clarke said.

"I'll miss his guidance ... his friendship, his experience around the group, his knowledge of this game. They are things that no matter how much talent you have as a young player, the experience and knowledge of the game you need to learn," he added. (ANI)