I think Ponting will hand the reins to Clarke "simply by retiring as skipper" but continue to bat on in his regular spot. I think there is an agenda there for him personally.
I believe he has been known to comment to one or two friends that he believes battings equivolent to Warnies 700 odd wickets is around the 15.000 test runs. He secretly wants to be the first to post this milestone and has every intention of doing so but realizes this task will be better achieved more easily without the contraints of acting as Captian. Simply concentrating on his batting. Good on yer Ricky.
Go get it mate.

HA, please, thirty three years old, under 10, 000 runs right now, and most likely about 3/4 years left, and yet to come close to the great LAra's and Tendulkars run totals, as if he can get 15000, I doubt he will ever get close, if he got a 1000 runs in the net four calendar years each, he would only get to 13 000 and that just aint going to happen. As if, hes just way too over confident and he is not the best ever nor is he better then Tendulkar or Lara for that matter, althougha good batsman he is, a legend he is not.