Ponting is an elephant in the room and must go: Cairns

"I don't think you can have two years averaging 27 as a No 3. I think it's his time (to retire)," Cairns said.

"And when you look at the likes of Mark Taylor, (Ian) Healy, Mark Waugh -- they were told it was their time. And there's an elephant in the room at the moment in Ricky Ponting that nobody is really addressing," he was quoted as saying by 'Sydney Morning Herald'.

The former Kiwi all-rounder, who retired from Test cricket at the age of 34, also felt that Ponting should himself call it a day after the Hobart Test against New Zealand.

"Don't get me wrong, I've got the utmost respect for Ricky Ponting but there's a time and a place. And for me, his time and place is Hobart in the second Test against New Zealand. That's to say, 'Thanks very much'," insisted Cairns.

He felt that the Australian selectors need to take the hard call on the soon-to-be 37-year-old Ponting. "Australia for me was an uncompromising cricket nation, but I've felt there's been decisions they make that have been compromising (in) the last couple of years.