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ricky-ponting
You know it’s time to sleep when…
By Will 2 months ago, 6 Comments »
Ricky’s dropped on nought.
8.4 Mohammad Asif to Ponting, 1 run, dropped, short ball, hooked high out to the deep, straight down the throat of Aamer at long leg who puts down a sitter
Bugger.
6 Comments »Ponting and Murdoch
By Will last year, at the start of August, 4 Comments »
Not Rupert. Or James. But Billy Murdoch. He was the last Australia captain to lose an Ashes series twice in England, and Ricky Ponting is fast closing in on that dubious record. That much we know. But we (well, I, certainly) are less knowledgeable about Murdoch himself, so do have a read of his obituary – if only for the wonderfully antiquated language.
And here’s the Wisden Almanack report of the Australians’ ill-fated 1890 tour. “From whatever point of view it is looked at,” the report says, “the seventh tour of Australian cricketers in England can only be regarded as a failure.”
There is poetry in the similarities between the pair. Now that Ponting has overtaken Allan Border as Australia’s leading run-scorer, he can comfortably be described as one of their greatest-ever batsmen. And in 1890, so was Murdoch.
4 Comments »Naturally a good deal of the interest of the trip centred in the doings of W.L. Murdoch, who had returned to the game after an absence of about five years, and, as in 1880, 1882, and 1884, was captain of the side. It was rather a risky experiment for the greatest of all Australian batsmen to come back to first-class cricket after such a long interval, but the result proved that he had not misjudged his powers. It would be an exaggeration to say that he added anything to the laurels he had gained during his previous trips in England, but inasmuch as he scored the largest aggregate of runs and came out with the best average, it would be equally wrong to say that he failed. His style was as perfect as ever, and when the wickets were good he gave many a display of batting that was worthy of his best days.
A Ponting poll
By Will last year, mid-July, No Comments; be the first!
We now have polls at Cricinfo, which are proving hugely popular. This one’s only been up a short while, and the result is fairly conclusive. Oh alright – it’s emphatic.
Is Ricky Ponting right to complain about England’s gamesmanship?
Results
| Yes, it has no place in cricket |  |
20.58% | 8995 |
| No, it’s part of the game | |
22.45% | 9815 |
| Ponting should be the last to complain | |
56.97% | 24906 |
| Total votes: | 43716 | ||
Ponting beginning to implode
By Will last year, mid-July, 9 Comments »
I know he was unfortunate to be dismissed today – even if he didn’t edge it, he was lbw – but Ricky Ponting strikes me as a man almost too determined for his own good.
He said at the start of this tour that he was more motivated than ever before, not less. And I’m sure that’s probably true. But there are numerous incidents already in this series where his fiery determination to conquer is beginning to affect his focus.
In the game at Worcester, shortly before the end of the drawn match, he was getting chirpy with the pair at the wicket. When a decision was turned down, he remonstrated with the umpire – who, without any coincidence, then fainted and had a funny turn. Ponting leads by example with the bat, but he is not a role model in the field.
After Cardiff, he let the media get on top of him, hook line and sinker. The 12th man debate was like a bomb waiting to explode in his head, and off it went. When your spinner, and a softly spoken one at that, firmly disagrees with your stance on the opposition’s tactics (Hauritz said Australia, and any other team, would’ve attempted delaying tactics), you need to take a deep breath and distance yourself from the situation. Hauritz acted with greater professionalism than his captain.
Duncan Fletcher, England’s former coach, then waded in on the debate in a newspaper column. That too sparked Ponting into life when he should’ve kept his mouth shtum and sucked it up. Get over it. It’s happened, it’s in the past. But instead, Ponting was riled and let Fletcher, and the media, get under his skin.
None of this may affect the overall series result, and Ponting is clearly a natural leader, but his natural fire and propensity to let emotion overrule his brain is an odd trait for a player so experienced, a man now well into his thirties.
And, yes, he could bat for three days to save this Test for Australia, but there’s a big difference between leadership and captaincy.
9 Comments »Gamesmanship
By Will last year, mid-July, 8 Comments »
So, what’s the verdict in the Ponting v Strauss mountain out of a molehill? It’s beautifully divided between the two nations, it seems: Australia are disgusted by England’s delaying tactics; England are flippant and condescending about Ponting’s accusations.
And then the mousy Hauritz decides not to side with his captain, rather ending the whole furore.
I can’t help but feel it’s blown out of all proportion, and Ponting is in danger of letting England and the media get under his skin. As happened in 2005.
You?
8 Comments »Belly: The Art Of Catpaincy
By Alan Tyers last year, at the start of July, 2 Comments »
It was really good being captain of the England Lions side this week ‘cos I got to do tossing a coin and telling people where to stand and in the dressing room I even got my own special captain’s seat like James T Kirk and I got a bit of paper and sellotape and I wrote “Ian Bell Catpain” on it so people would know it was my special seat but I realised that I hadn’t spelled it as good as I might have done so I tried to go over it with tippex but that never really worked too well so in the end it just said “Ian Bell Ca-blobble” you know like sort of a smudged smeary thing.
Mr Miller that’s in charge of selectioning come in the dressing room and he looks at the special captain’s seat and he says: “starts out looking very nice but goes to pieces pretty quickly” and he made a little note in his notebook so I don’t know if that’s good or bad really but all I can do is keep focused and keep scoring runs for my county and keep working hard on my spelling.
I was also in charge of choosing all the food that we would have for tea so I got alphabetti spaghetti AND chicken nuggets but I couldn’t decide if we should have ice-cream for pudding or Angel Delight and I guess that’s what they talk about when they say that part of leadership is making the hard choices. At the end of the day, ice-cream’s record speaks for itself so I’ve gone with that.
Tossing the coin was pretty cool as well. I walked out there with Ricky Ponting and we were having a bit of banter, like two prize fighters sizing each other up you might say. I says: “Heads or tails, Ricky?” and he says “Did you get that coin out of your piggy bank you little pommie squit?” but Ian Bell is a much more composeder cricketer than the one that admittedly had a tough baptism of fire against Australia in the early days of his international career and I looked him right in the eye, well not exactly, but I looked at the ground where he was standing, and I says: “Actually I don’t have a piggy bank anymore” and he knew he was in a streetfight right away.
Alan Tyers rifled through Ian Bell’s gmail account
2 Comments »Ponting on front cover of 2009 Playfair Cricket Annual
By Will last year, mid-February, 9 Comments »
I see Bill Frindall’s parting gift to England fans was his decision to put Ricky Ponting on the front cover of the 2009 Playfair Cricket Annual. Every year, almost without fail, the incumbent tends to have a rotten 12 months. Cheers to Bill, supping his beer in the great pub in the sky.
Warne again
By Will last year, at the start of January, 8 Comments »
Today isn’t the day to lament Shane Warne’s absence, but tomorrow might be. South Africa lost an early wicket before Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis – the yawning dream team – steadied South Africa once again. Australia’s dearth of spin, and of pulling rabbits out of impossibly tiny hats like Warne did for fun, will begin to hurt them.
Will Warne return? It seems implausible, not least because it would signal defeat for Australia; that their future lies with the past. That notion isn’t far from the truth given their historic defeat in this series, but all teams must move on, a notion that Australia hasn’t had to ponder for years. Unfortunately, like Maradona, David Campese, Martin Johnson and other towers of sport, the specter of a truly great sportsmen like Warne can linger for years.
Warne himself has scoffed at a possible return, but he is no ordinary character. Of all Australia’s retired and not-forgotten, he has the charisma and chutzpah to break with tradition and make a memorable (if fleeting) reappearance for the Ashes – his and Australia’s most cherished battle.
So I’m going to put myself on the line here: if Australia lose the return series in South Africa, Warne will be back at Ponting’s insistence.
There’s a poll at the site, on the right, where you can vote – and have your say below.
8 Comments »Ponting doomed for the Ashes
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of October, 1 Comment »
Ricky Ponting has been chosen to appear on the front cover of the 2009 Playfair Cricket Annual
PS: that sound you can hear is a clump of straw, desperately being clutched at.
Statistics can lie
By Alex Try 2 years ago, mid-October, 3 Comments »
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“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” alleged former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.
I’m not sure if Disraeli was a cricketer: perhaps this was said in response to a particularly bad season in which his batting average belied the way he was striking the ball in the nets? One thing is sure: statistics hold a powerful grip over the mind of the cricketer and the cricket fan. You don’t hear Manchester United fans discussing Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Rooney’s respective goals-to-shots ratio. Be it bowling averages or strike rates, we are obsessed, and this obsession often clouds our judgement of a player.
Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain, began the current series under a cloud. Prior to the first Test he had scored a grand total of 172 runs in eight matches against India in India, at a dismal average of just 12.3. Much was made of this statistic in the pre-match posturing between the sides, and Ponting himself was obviously acutely aware of his past failings.
“Ponting’s poor record is an advantage for us,” Zaheer Khan told an Indian news channel. “This could be his last series as a captain, [and] if you see his statements in the press you can make out he is under pressure.”
As proved by his 123, past records can often count for little on the day. Commentators could have spent more time examining his play in the nets or the state of the pitch when making pre-match predictions. All but one of Ponting’s previous matches in India came before 2001 – back when he had only scored 2500 Test runs, and was averaging 43. He has changed markedly as a player since then. He has scored 7500 further runs, made a staggering 28 hundreds and raised his average to a lofty 58. His average against India in Australia is over 70.
Like a batsman who just received a ball that kicked-up off a good length and must play the next ball entirely on its merits – we must take a step back before making our judgments on a player before a series. Ponting’s record tells a story – it shows us his early weakness against spin, and the grip Harbhajan has held over him. It didn’t, however, tell us how this series was going to pan out. Ponting is an exceptional batsman and his innings yesterday wasn’t just redemption – it was a return to his brilliant status quo (if more tempered and watchful than usual).
Another player whose pre-series statistics masked his undoubted talents was Ishant Sharma. Before this match he had taken 23 wickets at an average of 36 from nine matches (the standard for a good fast bowler being under 30). There is no footnote next to these figures saying: “NB: bowled a great spell against Ponting at Perth a year ago – very good prospect”. If his career had ended before this match, a casual observer of Wisden in 20 or 30 years time would have assumed he was dropped for indifferent form. His four-wicket haul showed true class as he bowled beautifully on a slow surface.
Statistics are an indelible part of the game – they are recorded for posterity and will be your marker when you are gone. But they are only numbers. The game isn’t just about runs and wickets – it’s about people, places and stories. Is Michael Hussey the greatest player since Bradman? No he is not, but his average could make you think so. The two team’s final batting and bowling stats for this series will tell us who played consistently – but they might mask a crucial five not out by a tail-ender that won a pivotal test match. Put simply: they say the stats don’t lie, but sometimes they do.
Alex Try will be (hopefully) writing his thoughts on the India-England series for The Corridor
3 Comments »The latest man to reach 100 hundreds…
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-August, 3 Comments »
At Hove on June 30th this year, Stuart Law reached his century against Sussex and became the 34th man to score a hundred hundreds.
Ramps? Oh, he did that ages ago. April 2007, to be precise, against Yorkshire. His current total is 114 centuries: 100 in first-class cricket, and 14 in one-day.
Writers and commentators have been quick to point out that Mark Ramprakash might be the last man to reach 100 hundreds. Usually they’ve done so in a tone of sad, wistful, look-what-that-bad-man-Lalit-Modi-has-done-to-our-game nostalgia. And yet they all ignore the glaring oversight that underpins their analysis: of course nobody’s going to score 100 first-class hundreds any more, everyone plays far too much one-day cricket. So why aren’t we counting one-day centuries?
It smacks of a simple, conservative snobbery – or what one might more accurately term ‘Frindallism’. It’s harder to score a century in one-day cricket, and it always has been; harder, at any rate, than milking sub-standard county attacks well into your fifties as most of the old-timers did. At the very least, one-day achievements should be as exalted in posterity as their first-class counterparts.
The next man to reach 100 centuries? Ricky Ponting, probably – he has 99 – but Justin Langer could still pip him: he has three to go, and up to ten matches to play for Somerset this season. And both, with respect, are greater batsmen than Les Ames.
3 Comments »Pietersen as a Test captain, anyone?
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, at the start of July, 9 Comments »
There’s always a tendency to make your best player captain, but of late it’s one England have found it quite easy to resist. Captains need guile, nous, subtlety and tact. Mike Brearley had those things. Conversely, I reckon there’s about a 10% chance Kevin Pietersen hasn’t even heard of Mike Brearley.
For the moment, though, KP appears to the man in possession, which allows a tantalising glimpse into an imagined, post-Vaughan future. The present skipper clearly wants to make it as far as the next Ashes series, although so did Graham Thorpe, you might remember. In fact, any one of a number of circumstances could derail Vaughan before next summer – poor form with the bat, a thumping at the hands of South Africa, a disastrous winter tour, that blasted knee, an invitation to take part in Strictly Come Dancing – you know, anything.
And so, a number of names would be in the frame. Collingwood, if he’s still in the team; Cook, probably; Flintoff as a romantic outside bet; Strauss, heaven forbid. Pietersen, though, will definitely be a front-runner. If his stint as one-day captain goes well or he has a sensational run of form, his hand will be strengthened still further.
What would Pietersen be like as a captain? More importantly, perhaps, what would Pietersen the captain be like as a batsman? This is how the captaincy has affected the batting averages of some modern-day captains:
Ricky Ponting: 62.00 as captain; 55.97 not as captain
Brian Lara: 57.83 as captain; 50.12 not as captain
Rahul Dravid: 44.51 as captain; 57.66 not as captain
Michael Vaughan: 37.71 as captain; 50.98 not as captain
Interesting, isn’t it? The best two captains – Dravid and Vaughan – are the two whose form actually dips when given the top job.
When you consider the circumstances, it begins to make a little sense. Imagine that Vaughan or Dravid comes out to bat at 10 for 1 in reply to a score of about about 500. Neither man is exactly going to come out with all guns blazing. As captain, that would be irresponsible. Vaughan and Dravid feel a great and justifiable sense of responsibility towards their team which sometimes inhibits them from playing their natural game.
If Ponting or Lara came in in the same situation (Lara’s retired, I know) they would feel less constrained by the match situation. The reason? Ponting knows that if he’s out cheaply, chances are one of the batsman coming after him will save the day. Lara knows, or knew, that even if he scored 150, the West Indies would still very possibly lose. Neither Ponting nor Lara are as central to their team’s batting line-up as Vaughan or Dravid are, and they can thus play with a far greater degree of freedom.
That’s not to say that players whose figures improve when they become captain are simply selfish and single-minded; merely that the more freedom you have to play your natural game, the less it matters whether you’re a good captain or not. Ponting could be a terrible captain and Australia would still win most of the time. Lara could be a brilliant one and the West Indies would still lose. It’s the likes of Vaughan and Dravid, in the middle ground, who have to rein themselves in for the good of the team.
The qualities that make players good captains, then, actually render them less effective as a batsman. If KP ever becomes England captain, it looks like someone else is going to have to get the runs.
9 Comments »Ishant Sharma to Ricky Ponting (video)
By Will 2 years ago, mid-January, 5 Comments »
I managed to catch some of the highlights today of India’s rather epic win over Australia, and what an effort from Ishant Sharma. His long spell to Ricky Ponting, which lasted about an hour, was skilful fast bowling and must have been mesmeric to watch live. It reminded me of Andrew Flintoff’s over to Ponting at Edgbaston in 2005, but this was a sustained examination of the batsman’s technique – not just six crackerjack deliveries. Some brief highlights of it, and the rest of the fourth day’s play from Perth, are below:
If you can’t see them, click here or here.
5 Comments »The fading of the Australian aura
By Will 2 years ago, mid-January, 12 Comments »
If Australia are to win their 17th game on the trot, treading into territory no team has ever tiptoed, they will have to score 413 runs to beat India. It will be the second-highest run chase in the history of the game. Consequently, every Indian and anti-Australia fan is salivating at the prospect of Ricky Ponting’s remarkable winning run being cut short. Is this the end of a dynasty?
Robert Craddock, who my colleague (hello Gnasher) refers to as Crash Craddock, thinks there is enough evidence to suggest the Australian aura is diminishing:
Since the start of the Sydney Test, India has stood toe-to-toe and eyeball-to-eyeball with Australia, highlighting some deficiencies and cutting down some lofty reputations.
Australia is still outstanding, but it is not what it was and nor could it expect to be after the retirement of a handful of long-serving champions.
The champs are not chumps but India has proved one thing — they are gettable.
The rest of the world will feed off the brazen Indian uprising in a series in which the great Ricky Ponting has averaged just 16, Michael Clarke just 23 and, shock of all shocks, a four-pronged Australian pace battery in this Test has been completely outbowled by three unsung Indian rivals.
The thought that Australia’s world dominance is coming to an end is always an enticing prospect, but champion teams tend to bounce back off the ropes quicker than most. After the 2005 Ashes, Ponting set out to really put his mark on the team and has done so brilliantly, if not so appealingly for the rest of the world. Or, indeed, for cricket itself. “Win at all costs” is a mantra most teams would like to obey, but only Australia have had the tools and balls to execute it in the past 20 years. In doing so, it hasn’t endeared them to the rest of the world; their cricket is pure, their method is not. As Mike Atherton said last week, “being nice will always be associated with losing in Ponting’s mind”.
I’m not convinced this is the end of Australia’s dynasty or aura – call it what you will. India have upset them in many ways, and although the rumpus of the past few weeks scarred cricket irrevocably, it does at least show Australia’s softer underbelly. Not that I’m advocating racism or severe sledging as the solution to beating them…
They hate teams fighting tooth and nail, eyeball to eyeball, and yet it is what they apparently crave from touring teams. England did it in 2005, winding up Ponting and co so much that they lost all composure and focus. The same has happened with India, albeit in far more contensious circumstances. It’s almost as though they’ve forgotten what it is like to be challenged, on or off the pitch, much in the same way England have forgotten how to win.
The thought of India winning is less than appealing on a personal level – I hope and pray they are gracious, for their (and the media’s) sake – but the prospect of Australia’s winning run coming to an end is far sweeter.
12 Comments »Here come the effigies
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of January, 36 Comments »
Surprisingly delayed, but here come the effigies of the three doomed members of the Sydney Test: Ricky “boooo” Ponting; Steve “Edges” Bucknor. And Mark “give us a” Benson:
Here’s how to make your point. LOTS OF FLAMES AND FIRE AND BURNING THINGS:
I have to tip my hat to this one though. Inspired use of the roadside donkey:
All in all, a disgraceful turn of events. Let them abandon it and let them bugger off home. Just spoken to my Indian friend who diplomatically asked my opinions on it. I told him how India have dug themselves a hole, and continue to act as though Australia have nicked their dummy. He and his mates, all Indian, agree. I fear he and they are in the minority.
Get over it.
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