It took me a long time to warm up to Ricky Ponting as a cricketer. I always admired his batting and the supreme ability he had to be ruthlessly dominating. Of his contemporaries/competitors for best batsmen of the modern era he always looked the most dismissive of bowlers when at his best. Lara was aesthetically pleasing, Kallis and Dravid defied bowlers to remove them from the pitch, and Tendulkar looked supremely confident. But no one played with as much seeming arrogance as the boy from Launceston. And maybe it was this typical Australian arrogance and snarling attitude that made me dislike him initially. Apart from the fact that he spit into his palms too often (or maybe the camera just liked focusing on him when he did that). Or maybe it was that he seemed to reserve his best so often for India (though thankfully not in India itself). His three highest Test innings (and three of his six double hundreds) were made against India and it was his pulverizing innings in the 2003 World Cup final that made the match lopsided. I watched each ball of the first three of those four innings and they left a searing (albeit hugely admiring) impression.
The innings that turned things around for me was his 156 at Old Trafford in the 2005 Ashes. It still counts as probably the best captain's innings that I have watched. Under pressure after England had squared the series and the Aussies were looking fragile for the first time in years, you could see Ponting visibly summon every inch of his mental strength and experience to keep his team afloat. None of his men passed 40 but Ponting battled on and made only his second fourth innings ton into a big one through sheer grit. And I can still recall the expression on his face when he was the ninth wicket to fall with four overs still left to play. Thankfully, Lee and McGrath hung on though Australia couldn't salvage the series which was the beginning of Ponting's misery as captain as he lost two more Ashes series including the first in Australia in nearly 25 years.
That though will not be his legacy. As Dan Brettig points out, most players are considered greats if they play 100 Test matches and Ponting has played in 100 victories. That plus the fact that he is arguably the best Australian batsman after the Don (ie the best human Australian batsman ;-)). Over 13,000 runs, an average of 52+ and 41 hundreds are records that will take some besting. I doubt that the Bard is particularly popular down under but if he were, the talk in pubs after Perth 2012 will be along the lines of "Mate, here was a Caesar! when comes such another?" or whatever the Aussie version of that would be.
Go well at the WACA, Punter and thanks for all the memories (painful or otherwise :-)).
The innings that turned things around for me was his 156 at Old Trafford in the 2005 Ashes. It still counts as probably the best captain's innings that I have watched. Under pressure after England had squared the series and the Aussies were looking fragile for the first time in years, you could see Ponting visibly summon every inch of his mental strength and experience to keep his team afloat. None of his men passed 40 but Ponting battled on and made only his second fourth innings ton into a big one through sheer grit. And I can still recall the expression on his face when he was the ninth wicket to fall with four overs still left to play. Thankfully, Lee and McGrath hung on though Australia couldn't salvage the series which was the beginning of Ponting's misery as captain as he lost two more Ashes series including the first in Australia in nearly 25 years.
That though will not be his legacy. As Dan Brettig points out, most players are considered greats if they play 100 Test matches and Ponting has played in 100 victories. That plus the fact that he is arguably the best Australian batsman after the Don (ie the best human Australian batsman ;-)). Over 13,000 runs, an average of 52+ and 41 hundreds are records that will take some besting. I doubt that the Bard is particularly popular down under but if he were, the talk in pubs after Perth 2012 will be along the lines of "Mate, here was a Caesar! when comes such another?" or whatever the Aussie version of that would be.
Go well at the WACA, Punter and thanks for all the memories (painful or otherwise :-)).
Comments