Ponting predicts critics of the on-going policy of resting crucial players for matches to recover mentally and physically from gruelling international fixture schedules will be silenced if Australia win the coveted Ashes off arch enemy England later this year.
Ponting ended his record-breaking international career at the conclusion of a three Test series against South Africa in December.
He declared full allegiance to the national team’s heavily criticised rotation process that even rests batsmen, with captain Michael Clarke sitting out the opening two one-day international clashes with Sri Lanka after a heavy Test program.
“I’ve been around and seen it all," Ponting said on popular Fox Sports program Inside Cricket.
“The track that we’re on is definitely the right one.
“We need to be giving every one of our young players in Australia every possible opportunity to become the best players that they can be.
“Hopefully in the coming months you will see, on Wednesday the boys bounce back and then hopefully when the boys get to India for the Test series and it would be great to see the Test team win the Ashes back as well.
“If we do that, then I guess a lot of the critics, a lot of the things that are being talked around Australian cricket at the moment will be silenced.”
Ponting maintains that Australian players need intermittent spells to refresh mentally and physically from their grinding international and personal playing schedules.
Playing burdens in the modern era with growing priority to the hectic Twenty20 commitments spread around the globe and especially in the highly lucrative Indian Premier League are heavier than at any other time in international cricket, according to Ponting.
“Most of the guys in this current team now are playing all three forms of the game and they’re playing IPL and they’re playing Champions League,” said the former batting sensation.
“They are playing a lot of cricket.
“So I can understand that the public at some times will be a little bit disappointed that our best players aren’t playing every game.
“But I really think it is impossible to expect that our best players do play every game.”
Ponting calls for cricket authorities to undertake educational programs to inform all stakeholders in the game of a change in policy in player welfare and promotion of the national team.
Australia’s greatest ever Test and one-day international run-scorer points to highly successful rest and rotation policies at some of the biggest sporting brands in the world.
“If you look at Manchester United or the Chicago Bulls, you know Michael Jordan probably didn’t start in every game that the Chicago Bulls played and Wayne Rooney and those guys don’t start or certainly don’t play in every game that Manchester United plays,” said Ponting.
“An educational process should be put in place to let one, the sponsors and two the people that are covering the game in Channel Nine and then the fans to let them understand a bit before the day that the team is announced what is actually going to happen.
“Cricket these days, it’s all about the athlete and everything that is happening with sports science around the Australian cricket team to try and get the best that we can out of each one of our players.
“I know that the argument is out there at the moment suggesting that what we’re doing is not working and we should go back to the way it was 10 or 15 years ago.”