Clark, Katich, Haddin back Ponting to lead Australia

Sydney, Aug.26 (ANI): New South Wales Test stars Stuart Clark, Simon Katich and Brad Haddin arrived back in Sydney this morning, and immediately stepped in to defend Ricky Ponting's captaincy credentials, though he has become the second Australian skipper to surrender the Ashes twice in England.

"Ricky Ponting has got my full support and I think he's the best man to be captain. "I think it's ludicrous that anyone say anything other," the Daily Telegraph quoted Clark, as saying.

Katich stressed every player had to take responsibility for the series loss.

"There was 11 of us out there that had an opportunity to win the Ashes - you can't just blame it on one person," said Katich, who scored 341 runs at an average of 42.

"We had our chances throughout the whole five Tests, unfortunately when those chances came around, whether it was Cardiff, Lords, The Oval, we didn't grab them, so everyone put their hands up for that," he added.

The dogged left-hander also refused to use queries about the team's preparation for the five-Test series as an excuse.

"I think our preparation was fine. You can always look for plenty of excuses, but the bottom line is when we're out there when the pressure was on, we didn't take our chances," he said.

Haddin, meanwhile, will have his broken finger checked out later today and is hopeful of being fit for next month's Champions Trophy one-day tournament in South Africa. (ANI)