Ponting undergoes wrist surgery

Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, has had surgery on his injured right wrist and is no certainty to take part in the team's next matches, a series of three ODIs against Bangladesh in Darwin starting in late August. Ponting suffered the injury while batting in the third ODI against West Indies in Grenada last Sunday.

He was released from the tour and sent back to Australia, where he immediately had an assessment with Cricket Australia medical staff and had the operation in Melbourne on Monday. The process was completed as quickly as possible to give Ponting the best chance of taking part in the Darwin ODIs and the Champions Trophy that follows.

"We're not sure [on his availability against Bangladesh] at this stage," a Cricket Australia spokesman told AAP. "We'll have to assess him as we go along. But that's why they got him in for assessment so quickly, so they could decide on a course of action rather than him going home [to Sydney] and leaving it a week. This way it gives him more time to recover."

Trefor James, Cricket Australia's chief medical officer, said Ponting had a tendon injury that "requires repair of tissues that hold the tendon in place". In Ponting's absence in the Caribbean, Michael Clarke led the side for the first time in one-day internationals and completed the 5-0 whitewash that had started under Ponting.