Former Australia skipper warns England it's tough at the top
Ricky Ponting is revelling in England's recent Test struggles and believes they could be at the start of a decline from top spot.
England claimed the top Test ranking during their 4-0 whitewash of India last summer, but since then they have lost 3-0 to Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates before losing the opening Test of the current series against Sri Lanka in Galle.
Ponting led the dominant Australia team that was at the summit of the Test rankings for over a decade and the 37-year-old was content to remind England how difficult it is to remain at the top.
"It's really hard to stay up and dominate international cricket as long as we did a few years ago," he said.
"When you're up the top and you've got everyone trying to chase you, it's hard to maintain that."
Top spot
Andrew Strauss' side will lose their number one status, to South Africa, if they fail to win against Sri Lanka in Colombo this week.
Even worse, they could slip behind Australia - an almost unthinkable notion after their Ashes triumph 18 months ago - if Michael Clarke's side also whitewash West Indies 3-0 this month.
It is a scenario that has not been lost on Ponting, who arrived in the Caribbean last week ahead of the first Test in Barbados on April 7.
"It goes to show we're on the right track to turning our cricket around and probably goes to show that England might have been at the start of the end of their cycle," Ponting told reporters in Bridgetown.
"England have got a taste of it up there for a little bit and have started to struggle a bit in their last couple of series."
