Ricky Ponting has warned England he is determined to erase the bitter memories of his last Ashes tour by leading Australia to victory over the old enemy. Although Ponting's team will start the forthcoming series with the Ashes in their possession after victory on home soil in 2006-07, the Australia captain still recalls with some discomfort England's dramatic 2005 triumph.
Not even the 5-0 demolition of England two years ago could completely make up for being the captain when Australia surrendered the famous Ashes urn for the first time in 16 years. The 34-year-old batsman knows that 2-1 defeat will be on his CV forever but he can at least partially make amends by handing England an equally painful defeat, starting with the first Test in Cardiff on July 8. "There's one thing on my cricketing resume that hasn't been achieved yet, and that's being captain of a winning Ashes series in England," Ponting said.
"It's something very dear to my heart, and something I'll certainly be speaking to the players about - making sure we get over that hurdle." Only four members of Australia's current squad were part of the 2005 group and Ponting believes that could be an advantage because they won't feel any negativity about facing Andrew Strauss's team. "We all realised last time what mistakes we made and we also realised how great a Test series that was to be a part of," Ponting said.
"Even though we lost, it was probably the greatest Test series I've played in. I don't think there'll be any hangover from 2005. Ponting was named man of the series in 2006-07 after scoring 576 runs at 82.28 as Australia became the first team in 86 years to achieve an Ashes clean sweep.