MELBOURNE, Feb 16: Shane Warne’s hopes of becoming Australian one-day cricket captain were dashed with the appointment of Ricky Ponting to the role Saturday.

Warne, 32, had been considered one of three frontrunners for the captaincy of the national limited-over team after the shock axing of Steve Waugh earlier this week.

But Australian Cricket Board (ACB) chairman Bob Merriman Saturday confirmed Ponting and his deputy Adam Gilchrist as the leadership team for the current series of 10 One-day Internationals in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

“That’s probably not appropriate for me to go into the areas where the selectors have their views and the reasons that they did it,” Merriman said at the official announcement here.

“Suffice for me to say that the selectors unanimously decided to go with Ricky and Adam, and therefore as far as the directors were concerned, Shane was not in the frame at all and was not in the discussion.”

There had been some hope for Warne after his promotion to vice-captain for one match over the summer, a role he held until it was stripped from him in 2000 after a telephone sex scandal.

Warne has taken 268 wickets at an average of 25.61 in 175 One-daay Internationals since his debut against New Zealand at Wellington in 1992-93, with the pinnacle of his one-day career coming in the 1999 World Cup.—AFP