Australia completed a 3-0 one-day series sweep over Zimbabwe

Two Tests were suspended with Zimbabwe forced to pick a second-string team after 15 white players pulled out.

"I've got no doubt it was the right decision to tour," said Ponting.

"We went there to do our job, which is to play cricket. We didn't get involved in anything political but that's not saying we turned a blind eye."

Ponting's men completed a 3-0 sweep in the one-day series, which ended on Saturday.

Zimbabwe's Test status is likely to be debated at an International Cricket Council meeting on June 27.

Leaving Zimbabwe on Sunday, Ponting said: "We don't want them out of cricket, we just want them to be able to improve and be able to put a good side out.

"We need every country around the world to have strong international teams, and their team is not as strong as it has been in the past.

"Hopefully they can get it back to a similar sort of standard to what they had four or five years ago."

Meanwhile, Ponting has pledged his support to Muttiah Muralitharan over the spinner's reluctance to tour Down Under.

It was in Australia that Muralitharan was first no-balled for throwing and Prime Minister John Howard has recently labelled him as a "chucker."

World cricket bosses have also decided Murali's doosra delivery is illegal.