Ponting 'saddened' by Warne departure

Ricky Ponting's Ashes-winning smile was stopped when Shane Warne told him he was retiring © Getty Images Enlarge

Ricky Ponting was "shocked" and "saddened" when Shane Warne decided to retire, but he is stunned by talk of Glenn McGrath also walking away. In his first comments since Warne's announcement, Ponting revealed he did not try to change his team-mate's mind.

"I was a bit shocked and a bit saddened like everybody else was - not that he made the decision, because he'd obviously thought long and hard about wanting to retire," Ponting said. "But because of the fact I played with him for so long and he's a really good friend of mine and I've learned a lot from him about the game."

Warne told Ponting he was stepping down after Sydney during the Ashes-winning celebrations at Perth. "Whenever you lose someone you've been close to for a long period of time it's sad," he said. "But he's obviously made that decision on other things he wanted to do in his life so I didn't at any stage ever try to talk him out of it."

Speculation is also high that McGrath will make a similar decision, but Ponting said he sat next to his team-mate on the plane to Melbourne on Friday. "He can't believe some of the attention and some of the things that have been written in the paper, particularly today," Ponting told reporters. "I certainly haven't had the conversation with Glenn that I had with Shane the other night so that would to me indicate that he's thinking about playing a bit longer yet."