Ponting becomes Australia's new one-day leader

Australia's short-lived search for a new one-day international captain has ended today with the news that Ricky Ponting has been named to fill the position.

The appointment of Ponting, 27, has been made at the close of a tumultuous week in Australian cricket that was headlined by the shock removal of Steve Waugh from the post.

Ponting, who becomes the first Tasmanian player to be formally elevated to a role as Australian captain, has received only limited opportunities to showcase his leadership skills to this point of his career.

In his six appearances at Tasmania's helm, he has produced the perfectly balanced ledger of two wins, two draws and two losses.

He also enjoyed fleeting experience as Australia's vice-captain and led the side in a match against Somerset on the 2001 Ashes tour.

Otherwise, Ponting's prowess as a captain has only been revealed at junior level.

Together with the ratification of Ponting's appointment as its team's new leader, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) also announced today that its Directors had installed wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist as his deputy.

Following the news of Waugh's axing on Wednesday, the right to become Australia's new one-day leader had been widely perceived to have become a race in four.

The claims of Ponting, Gilchrist, Shane Warne and Darren Lehmann were all believed to have come under serious consideration.

But ACB Chairman Bob Merriman disclosed at a media conference in Melbourne that the four-man national selection panel had formed a unanimous view that Ponting should become the new leader.

Australia's next one-day outing will be in Johannesburg on 22 March at the start of a series of seven limited-overs matches against South Africa. Ponting's appointment covers that series, as well as a short three-match battle that follows in Zimbabwe.