Sydney, Mar 23(ANI): Cricket Australia's Head of Corporate Affairs, Peter Young, has dismissed a British newspaper report claiming that Australian captain Ricky Ponting is planning to retire from international cricket if his team gets knocked out of the ongoing World Cup.
Ponting will resign if his team lose to India in Thursday's quarterfinal in Ahmedabad, or when Australia's campaign to defend the World Cup ends, The Daily Mail had reported.
However, Young mocked the story on SEN radio.
"It's a case of somebody adding up two plus two and coming up with 22. We don't know anything about the story. I don't have any confidence in it," The Age quoted Young, as saying.
He also denied reports that there had been discussion about Ponting's leadership, saying: "The entire focus of this organisation at the moment is on the game tomorrow and then hopefully on a semi-final and final on the back of that."
"It has been claimed there is some interest in deliberately distracting us. But I don't think these are from that particular school of thought. I think it is just idle and in some cases mischievous gossip," he added.
Young pointed out that no discussion about leadership had cropped up when he had spoken to the top brass of the board.
"I'm not sure of the exact details because I'm not a director and I can't speak on behalf of the board but I do know ... having spoken to our chairman and to our chief executive I do know that there has been no discussion about leadership," he maintained.
Young said that while he had not spoken to Ponting lately, and could not determine his state of mind, he expected the conjecture would be annoying for the skipper.
"I am sure that he [Ponting] would prefer the gossip not to be around," he said.
Ponting is scheduled to address the media later today. (ANI)
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