HARARE, May 24: Australia captain Ricky Ponting has called for one-day cricket's weaker teams to be removed from the top flight on the eve of his team's limited-overs series against Zimbabwe.

"The standard of some of the one-day sides from lesser countries has to be looked at," Ponting told reporters at a news conference on Monday. "We want to play the best cricket we can all the time against the best teams."

World champions Australia will take on an inexperienced Zimbabwe team in the first of three One-day Internationals in Harare on Tuesday. The series was brought forward after the scheduled two-Test series between the sides was called off last week 24 hours before it was due to start.

Zimbabwe would have had to field a severely weakened team due to a festering dispute which has left the selectors without 15 experienced white players, including ex-captain Heath Streak. They accused the Zimbabwe board of allowing politicians to dictate the make-up of the team and of rushing young black players into the side before they were ready.

Zimbabwe had to select an inexperienced team to play Sri Lanka, who won both Tests by an innings and the one-day series 5-0. Ponting believes countries still emerging as cricketing powers should not be exposed to the rigours of competition at top international level.

"I don't think some of the less established countries should play at the World Cup or at the Champions Trophy, basically because I don't think they learn anything against the more powerful countries," he said.

"If you look at some of the results from the last World Cup, Canada were bowled out for 36. I can't see how they learn anything out of that. "They're better off playing against themselves for an extended period of time, against slightly better opposition. -Reuters