Ricky Ponting has said he is rebuilding the Punjab Kings franchise in the Indian Premier League. But the Australian coach has ensured that the ownership, which includes Bollywood actor Preity Zinta, knows he will not tolerate their involvement in cricketing matters.

"I don't mind owners having conversations with me about what they want," Ponting told the Howie Games podcast. "But I have an issue when they start going directly to players because if I'm giving my message, and then there is this other message getting to players, that's where we end up with issues."

The 50-year-old, regarded as one of the greatest cricketers of all time, has been a coach in the IPL for a decade, starting with Mumbai Indians before joining Delhi Capitals. Punjab appointed Ponting ahead of the upcoming season, which begins on March 21.

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"The board, the directors are all aware of the way I want to do things... I laid it out at the start. I have been in the IPL for ten years. I have heard a lot of the things that has happened at the franchise or perceivably happened at this franchise, and I said to them, 'if you want to be different, then we're going to make it different'," Ponting said.

But from this moment on, all though they are the owners of the team, its my team now. They have to accept that this is the way we're doing things.

Ricky Ponting

Ponting's influence was evident from the way Punjab handled the IPL Mega Auction. While most franchises struggled with their retentions, Punjab retained just two local stars, Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh, and went into the auction with the biggest purse of Rs 110.5 crore, nearly Rs 20 crore more than the closest one. Ponting is glad about the business they did in the auction, signing up the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen and Glenn Maxwell, among others.

"We had a good auction, it went really well. I'm happy with what we done there. But from this moment on, all though they are the owners of the team, its my team now. They have to accept that this is the way we're doing things.

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Ricky Ponting made Shreyas Iyer his top pick at the IPL Auction. File photo: AFP/ Dibyangshu Sarkar
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"The four major owners of Punjab, all successful people. They're passionate about the team, they want success. I think the fact that they haven't had success in 14 to 15 years is probably pushing them harder and harder, which makes them more passionate, and might make them ask more questions like 'why I did this and that or why did I go for this guy in the auction?' But so far so good.

"They know that the line of communication to the players is going to be through me. If they came to me with something and if I think its worth talking about then I'll. But if its something I don't think is worth talking about then I filter that and do the right thing for the team and the boys. But I'm going to make this clear, its going to be different, its going to be very different, with the way we're perceived, with the way people see it, the way we present ourselves, the way we play, the way we lead, everything is going to be different," Ponting said.

Punjab have yet to win the IPL since 2008. Their best showing was being runners-up in 2014. Last season Punjab finished ninth among the ten franchises.

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