Waugh, statistically cricket's most successful leader, said Ponting had the potential to captain his country for a decade but should consider limiting himself to just five years.

"As a captain five years is a long time," Waugh told a news conference before his emotionally-charged farewell to international cricket.

"I did it for five and I feel as though it's almost as though five years is about the maximum for a captain. It does take its toll, mentally it can be wearing and it takes a huge effort to captain a lot longer than that."

Waugh replaced Mark Taylor as Australian Test captain in 1999 and went on to become the most successful in history with 41 victories from 57 Tests and a success rate of 71.93 per cent.

He also led Australia to victory in the 1999 one-day World Cup but the burden of captaining both sides began to take its toll.

He lost the one-day captaincy to Ponting in 2002 and only saved his Test career with a century in the last Ashes match in Sydney a year ago.

PERFECT-TIMING

Waugh showed the same perfect-timing that characterised his batting by retiring in a blaze of glory after this week's Indian series and endorsing Ponting as his successor.

Waugh said he expected Ponting to break a stack of batting records, including Allan Border's record for the most runs as well as his own record for the most centuries, but only as long as the demands of the captaincy didn't weigh him down.

"Ricky Ponting will do a great job. He has the respect of the players and most importantly he wants the job and he's ready for it," Waugh said.

"He's at the peak of his powers right now and there's no better time to take over.

"Run-wise I think he'll be Australia's greatest ever run scorer and century-maker but as a general rule, five years is a good period for the captain and the coach.

"After that, it depends on your worth and whether you want to keep going on and whether you've got new ideas and whether you're innovative and maybe can go a bit longer."

Waugh said the best bit of advice he could pass on to Ponting was to enjoy his team mate's success as much as his own to take some of the pressure off himself.

"You're going to have plenty of ups and downs yourself so you've got to be able to enjoy the people around you and the success they're having and also show compassion when they're not having success," he said.

"It's about taking care of your own game and thinking about those around you."