Ricky Ponting may feel uncomfortable that John Buchanan, his former coach and mentor, is advising the old enemy this week, but Buchanan remains a cheerleader for the Australia captain and believes that Ponting can lead a team in his own image to victory in the Ashes.

“He is determined to turn the tables for [the defeat in England in] 2005,” Buchanan said. “When he led Australia in the past two Ashes, he was surrounded by good lieutenants, but he is now ready to take the captaincy issue forward and move from a consultative style to one of more direct leadership.”

Only four players survive from the Australia side who lost the Ashes in 2005 - Ponting, Brett Lee, Simon Katich and Michael Clarke - and while Ponting will seek their advice, and that of other senior players, Buchanan feels that the loss of such experienced men as Shane Warne and Matthew Hayden could liberate the captain.

“I've always been a great fan of Ricky,” he said. “He is an outstanding team man and he brings that to his leadership style, but it is clear this is now his team.”

Buchanan, who coached Australia to three Ashes series victories out of four and two World Cup titles between 1999 and 2007, has been in England this week to observe the way that cricket is run. “I'm having a few lovely lunches at various county grounds,” he told The Times, but there is more purpose to his visit than a gastronomic tour.

He has been watching the England Lions, with whom he spent time on their tour to New Zealand last winter, and the Under-16 and Under-19 sides. In between, he has had meetings with leading county directors of cricket, such as Angus Fraser, Chris Adams, Mike Newell and Peter Moores. “After that, I'll sit down with David Parsons [the ECB performance director] and work out a way forward,” Buchanan said.

In effect, he is being asked to sketch out his own job description as a coaching consultant and Buchanan admitted that he is keen to work in England. “I'd start as soon as you asked me,” he said.

Ponting feigned dismay at Buchanan's interest in England this week. “I just hope I don't see him with an England jumper on. That will be a little bit disappointing,” the captain said. But the men remain close friends, even if they differ in their view of the treatment of Andrew Symonds.

The Queensland all-rounder was not selected for the Ashes squad and was sent home from the World Twenty20 party last month for breaching Australian disciplinary rules, but Buchanan feels that Australia are weaker for his absence. “If you do a cost-benefit analysis on Symonds, you'd find there are more pluses than minuses,” he said. “I'd always have included him even if there were occasions when he erred, but I think he is happier out of the side.”

Australia could have done with Symonds in the World Twenty20, in which they were knocked out after the group stage, but Buchanan believes that the early exit could be a blessing because it has given the team extra time to concentrate on the Ashes and bowl in the nets with the unfamiliar Duke balls that will be used during the Test series.

While Buchanan has an unparalleled record in international cricket, he has had less success at a lower level. When he coached Middlesex in 1998, they came seventeenth in the county championship and he was sacked as coach of Kolkata Knight Riders after they came last in this year's Indian Premier League. Four of Kolkata's defeats, however, came in the final two balls. “That's the fast route to having no hair and no job,” Buchanan said, and he blames both teams for not persisting with his long-term vision. “Sometimes the process and results collide, other times they diverge,” he said. “Both clubs wanted results to come immediately, but I was taking decisions for the long-term best interests of the clubs.” If he does take on a role with England, it will be to set such a long-term strategy.

Perhaps come the Ashes series of 2013 and beyond, the ECB will have cause to thank the county dinner ladies who fed him so well.