Richards asks England to target Ponting

Viv Richards tells Brain Viner in the Independent that Australia are still a strong side and that England will have to be at their best to retain the Ashes.

"One of the secrets of playing against Australia is working the captain over. It's like the Red Indians. They knew that if you killed the chief, you killed the spirit. When I captained the West Indies we tried to do that to every captain we played against, but particularly Allan Border. Malcolm Marshall had a plan for him, bowling a little short, and getting him to pop it up with a guy in his back pocket. Ricky Ponting is similar, a good batsman and a hard character, but maybe more than ever now that Australia have lost so many great players, like [Shane] Warne and [Glenn] McGrath, England need to target Ponting."