By IANS,
London : Australia captain Riicky Ponting made a virtue of his decision to skip the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa, saying he is “relaxed and rejuvenated” by forgoing the rewards to be picked from the Twenty20 tournament ahead of the long Ashes summer.
Ponting, however, refused to criticise England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen for their dash for cash after each had been auctioned for $1.55 million.
Pietersen also missed the NatWest Series against the West Indies because of an achilles complaint.
“There was obviously a great incentive for those guys to go and play with the amount of money they went for and I guess they were always coming back from the IPL early for the Test matches,” Ponting was quoted in the Guardian.
“But for me it was pretty simple: it was about how long our summer was and how much cricket we played. It was a good opportunity for me to have a couple of weeks off cricket and make sure that when I got here for the start of this tournament I was in the best physical and mental shape I could be,” he said.