Barry said Ponting should have set more conservative fields for Brett Lee and Jason Krejza, who ended up conceding four runs per over to lose against South Africa at Perth, which witness the hosts second defeat in a row at WACA.

"His thinking is still about setting fields for McGrath and Warne and he has not got the cattle to do that," Richards said.

"He had two bowlers (Lee and Krejza) who were leaking four runs an over. Ponting is used to so much success this is really hard for him. You have to have a different strategy," he was quoted as saying by the 'Daily Telegraph'.

Richards said a captain has to have a plan for players like South Africa skipper Graeme Smith had.

"You cannot have 50 overs a day where you re giving away 200 runs. Your mindset on field placings has to change dramatically. Everyone thinks South Africa's spinner Paul Harris is a donkey bowler but he outbowled Jason Krejza by a mile.

"South Africa have a plan for Harris. He knows what he is trying to do. Krejza bowls a `four ball' every seven balls. He will drop short and a good player will always hit that in front of square for four," he said.

"Graeme Smith got strongly criticised for setting defensive fields. I disagree with that because on the flat wickets you have these days you need to be able to save runs," Richards said.

"Defensive fields in a way become attacking fields. You need to have an in and out field. People say third man is a defensive position, yet 30 per cent of all Test runs go through there at the WACA," he added.

Ponting also drew flak from former Test batsman and WACA Chief Executive Graeme Wood for critising the WACA pitch for the loss.

"One side got 20 wickets, one side didn't. When you are 162-7 in the second innings, I don't think you can point the finger at the wicket," Wood said.

"At one stage the wicketkeepers were back 25 metres. Brett Lee bounced one over the keeper's head. In the Ashes series we didn't receive any criticism when Shane Warne took that last wicket and they won the Test on the fifth day," he said.

WACA curator Cam Sutherland, on his part, questioned Australia's preparation and said Ponting had not even consulted him before the Test.

"I haven't had any communication with Ricky. He hasn't spoken to me and there was absolutely nothing about the pitch," Sutherland said.