Australia captain Ricky Ponting says all-rounder Andrew Symonds let himself and the team down with his latest off-field troubles.
Symonds was sent home from the Twenty20 World Cup on Thursday for what Cricket Australia described as an alcohol-related breach of team rules and other violations.
Ponting declined to give specifics of Symonds' behavior, but said the player broke a "number of his own commitments" in the past 24-48 hours and the decision to kick him off the squad was taken "in the bigger picture" of Australian cricket.
"He let himself down, he let his team-mates down and let Cricket Australia down," Ponting said at a news conference at The Oval.
Ponting said Australia are looking for a replacement for Symonds ahead of the team's opening match of the Twenty20 World Cup on Saturday against West Indies.
"We're all disappointed with what happened over the last 24 hours," he said. "Losing one of the best Twenty20 players in the world is obviously not ideal."
But Ponting said the team would cope without him.
"Hopefully we don't miss a beat from here," he said. "It would be like wishing in a couple of weeks' time that we had McGrath, Hayden and Warne around. That's not going to happen."
A decision on Symonds' future is up to the Cricket Australia board.
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