SYDNEY: Sacking Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting would be “completely unfair” as a reaction to losing the Ashes to England, Cricket Australia (CA) chief James Sutherland said today.

Sutherland defended Ponting and the selectors, who have been under fire in the wake of Australia’s heavy, 197-run loss in the fifth Test on Sunday to hand England a 2-1 series victory. The defeat gave Ponting the unwanted record of becoming only the second Australian captain — and first since Billy Murdoch way back in 1890 — to lose two Ashes series in England.

Australia’s third loss in five series also deposed them from the top of the world Test rankings to fourth place, one spot above England. Polls in Monday’s local newspapers in Australia have a majority (51 to 49 per cent) calling for Ponting’s removal as skipper.

Sutherland said CA would conduct a review of the series, but he did not expect any sweeping changes. He pointed to the relative inexperience of the team in the wake of recent retirements of Test cricket’s all-time great players — Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer — and said ebbs and flows in form had to be expected in a rebuilding phase.

Australian selectors, led by chairman Andrew Hilditch, have been slammed in the media for their decision to leave spinner Nathan Hauritz out of the Australian team for the deciding Test on the spin-friendly Oval pitch. Sutherland said any call for Ponting’s sacking would be “completely unfair”. “Ricky’s had a very, very good series,” he said. “He’s been under incredible pressure. I thought the dignity and poise that he showed in defeat was something that all Australians should be very proud of.” Sutherland also said blame for the series defeat should not rest on the selectors. Cricket Australia is planning to make at least one of the three-man selection panel full-time, and Sutherland said there would be no increased role for the captain and coach in selection matters. “One of the things we’ve had as a fundamental is that selectors have always been independent of the coach and the captain and I don’t think the board’s position has changed from that,” he said.

Flintoff ruled out

LONDON: England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff will undergo exploratory arthroscopic surgery on his injured right knee on Tuesday and will miss the one-day series against Australia and Champions Trophy.

Flintoff will miss Thursday’s ODI in Ireland, the Twenty20 international series against Australia and the ODI series against Autralia, as well as September s the Champions Trophy in South Africa. The Lancashire star had already announced that the final Ashes clash of the series would be his last Test appearance due to the constant strain on his knee problem. England’s selectors have opted not to replace Flintoff at this stage in their squads for the Twenty20 and one-day series matches against Australia. Jonathan Trott has been added to the squad for the Ireland match. — AFP