Michael Clarke says Ponting is one of the best skipper he has played under

Australia seems to be in the throes of national remorse following the Ashes defeat to arch enemies England.

First it was Ricky Ponting accepting blame for his team's surrender, saying the "buck stops with me".

Even as his countrymen continue to reel under the "humiliation" of the defeat, Ponting's deputy Michael Clarke refuses to endorse the increasing calls for him to take over the reins of captaincy from Ponting, saying it is grossly unfair to blame the captain alone for the team's defeat.

As he prepared to lead his side in today's ODI against Scotland in the absence of Ponting, who has returned home for a break, Clarke said: "The one thing Punt's always said is that its part of the responsibility as a leader and as a senor player, we are going to be more responsible if we don't perform".

As a handful of critics circled over Ponting's head, Michael Clarke said: "He's our leader, and has been for my whole career, and in my opinion he's certainly one of the best leaders I've played under.

"Punt's playing fantastic cricket in all forms of the game. I think his series in the Ashes was very good once again" in a reference to the suggestion that Ponting captain the Test side, leaving the vice-captain to lead the team in one-dayers and Twenty20.

Simon Katich, who returned home to Sydney on Wednesday along with Ponting, Stuart Clark and Brad Haddin, has joined the groundswell of support for their captain within the team, saying the players had let down the captain.
"We all had to help him (Ponting) get the right result and we didn't do that," Katich said. Clark and Haddin echoed his views

And, even as the selectors face the music for the Australian team's traumatic set-back, selector Jamie Cox has put his hand up and admitted he made a selection mistake.

Australia's duty selector at the decisive fifth Test at the Oval, Cox admitted yesterday he realised "half an hour" into day one that he had misread the pitch. Half in jest he referred to the omission of Nathan Hauritz, in order to accommodate a fourth seamer (Stuart Clark), on what turned out to be a dry turning track, as "Spingate".

A refreshingly different scenario, this, from the blame game that usually follows an Indian defeat.