Ponting gone-ski?

Is it time for the Aussie cricket captain to pull the plug gracefully before his current downturn in form turns embarrassing and spoils a great record? I think so......

Ponting is now 35, he is no longer the dominant force at number 3 in world cricket. Sad to say he once had the safest pair of hands in the game, but now drops chances at slip which, considering his former level of skill, seem easily catchable. Not to mention a ludicrous decision to bat first in Sydney when it was obvious to all that the conditions on the first day were perfect for swing bowling. This is not the first time lately he has erred when winning the toss.

There is no way he should have played in the 1st & 2nd tests against Pakistan with his current elbow injury.
It has been said the Aussie cricket TEAM was more important than the individual, yet his ego and reluctance to hand over the captaincy, even temporarily has cost the team dearly this test. Yet he will deny it until the cows come home.

Sorry Punter, we all know the reason you are clinging on is because you are the only captain to lose the Ashes twice on English soil, and its burning a hole in your @rse. No doubt if you were to tour England again now the score line would look alot worse than 3-2, considering the Poms are giving the South Africans all sorts of grief in S.A.

Kerry O'keffe asked Doug Walters recently why he retired at the age of 35, his response was that his eyesight was starting to diminish.

You've had a great run, my friend, and will be considered Australia's 2nd best batsman, behind Bradman. Don't tarnish the glow on a fabulous career.

Adios amigo.

No, Punter is still the best batsman in the world!

Brad

BradK said:

No, Punter is still the best batsman in the world!

Brad

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You're kidding aren't you, I thinks he has only averaged in the high 30's over the last 2 or so years.

The selectors need to consider moving him down the order. Drop North, move Watson to 3 and open with Katich & Hughes.

Ponting is in the side till he calls it quits, there is no way the selectors will have the guts to drop him but he can't keep batting at 3 imo

BradK said:

No, Punter is still the best batsman in the world!

Brad

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You're kidding right?

ID Rat. Name
1 877 G. Gambhir
2 836 D.P.M.D. Jayawardena
3 835 K.C. Sangakkara
4 804 V. Sehwag
5 793 Mohammad Yousuf
6 782 M.J. Clarke
7 769 Younus Khan
8 765 S. Chanderpaul
9 763 J.H. Kallis
9 763 R.L. Taylor
11 754 G.C. Smith
12 735 K.P. Pietersen
13 728 A.B. de Villiers
13 728 R. Dravid
13 728 A.J. Strauss
16 726 R.T. Ponting
17 723 S.R. Tendulkar
18 708 V.V.S. Laxman
19 707 T.T. Samaraweera
20 698 S.M. Katich
21 690 A.G. Prince

BradK said:

No, Punter is still the best batsman in the world!

Brad

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There is a sarcastic smilie somewhere which you should have used. Ponting should retire.

In my opinion Sehwag is the best in the world right now, although I think Kallis will end up as top of the stats tree.

i

springhill said:

Ponting is now 35, he is no longer the dominant force at number 3 in world cricket. Sad to say he once had the safest pair of hands in the game, but now drops chances at slip which, considering his former level of skill, seem easily catchable.

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And he is still a better than average close fielder.

Not to mention a ludicrous decision to bat first in Sydney when it was obvious to all that the conditions on the first day were perfect for swing bowling. This is not the first time lately he has erred when winning the toss.

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Why ludicrous? Mark Taylor would have backed himself and team to bat 9 times out of 10 on that green top. Ponting no doubt wanted Pakistan batting on the last day. It's easy to say it was a bad decision in hindsight but batting got easier in the second and third sessions. Watson didn't stand up when he needed to. He and Hughes needed to hang around until the juice started disappearing and the ball got soft.

I'm not much of a fan of Ponting as captain, but I can't blame the guy for batting on this instance.

There is no way he should have played in the 1st & 2nd tests against Pakistan with his current elbow injury.
It has been said the Aussie cricket TEAM was more important than the individual, yet his ego and reluctance to hand over the captaincy, even temporarily has cost the team dearly this test. Yet he will deny it until the cows come home.

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It did seem strange. And his shot selection in the second innings in this test was also strange.

Sorry Punter, we all know the reason you are clinging on is because you are the only captain to lose the Ashes twice on English soil, and its burning a hole in your @rse. No doubt if you were to tour England again now the score line would look alot worse than 3-2, considering the Poms are giving the South Africans all sorts of grief in S.A.

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As mentioned, I don't rate Ponting as a great captain. He is good while he is steering a team that's on top, but as the tide turns in a match his body language drops and it seems like he just goes very defensive hoping a bowler will get a break. He doesn't actively seek a way to get a batsman out.

You've had a great run, my friend, and will be considered Australia's 2nd best batsman, behind Bradman. Don't tarnish the glow on a fabulous career.

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He has certainly been a stellar batsman for many series. I was particularily impressed with his form after the 2005 Ashes. He was in fine form in 2006. Second best bat for OZ, though? Sure he averages over 50, he has faced some good bowling; good but not great.
How did he score his runs? Often with great starts from bats like Taylor, Hayden and Langer setting a platform. Sure, he dug in on some great occasions but generally he was on a winning side. he also never had to face Warne or McGrath.

Ian Chappell for instance on averaged 37 or so but look at how, when and who against those runs were scored. And he was in a team that weren't far and away the best. England and the Windies were strong sides. Chappell played a hell of a lot of cricket against the pace attack of West Indies.

Allan Border deserves more credit as a bat in history. He was playing in a second rate team (in all fairness to the players) and was again playing against some excellent quality bowlers from around the world. Border batted opening, first and second drop all the way down to number 6.
He often had to bat with the tail in the later part of his career and often excelled.

Greg Chappell is another who was a true 50 plus batting average.


In my view, a 50 - 55 batting average today is = to a late 30 - early 40 from 20 - 30 years ago. But it really is unfair to judge between eras.


I think the knives are getting sharpened for Ponting. He will be under some more pressure next season. I don't see any advantage of letting him go and bringing in Clarke to the captain's role. I don't we will gain from that. I'm just guessing but I'm not sure Clarke has what it takes to be a great captain.

Who would replace Ponting or should he slot further down the order to just above Haddin? Who should be the next captain?

cheers,



cheers,

Stan 101 said:

i
And he is still a better than average close fielder.

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No argument there, but his skills are undoubtably are the slide, Father Time waits for no man.

Stan 101 said:

Why ludicrous? Mark Taylor would have backed himself and team to bat 9 times out of 10 on that green top. Ponting no doubt wanted Pakistan batting on the last day. It's easy to say it was a bad decision in hindsight but batting got easier in the second and third sessions. Watson didn't stand up when he needed to. He and Hughes needed to hang around until the juice started disappearing and the ball got soft.
I'm not much of a fan of Ponting as captain, but I can't blame the guy for batting on this instance.
It did seem strange. And his shot selection in the second innings in this test was also strange.

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I don't buy the Taylor argument for one second only Hussey being dropped 4 times saved the Aussies. That was poor play by the Pakistanis, not good play by Australia. That pitch was never going to crumble on the 5th day. Due to the weather conditions the pitch was underprepared, but just so happened to make for a brilliant test. Should be more the same.
IMO Taylor had a better batting team than Ponting, so he may well have batted.
Why single out Watson? He was dismissed by a genuinely good ball, unlike most others who fell slashing outside off stump, or pulling first ball of their innings.

Stan 101 said:

As mentioned, I don't rate Ponting as a great captain. He is good while he is steering a team that's on top, but as the tide turns in a match his body language drops and it seems like he just goes very defensive hoping a bowler will get a break. He doesn't actively seek a way to get a batsman out.

I think the knives are getting sharpened for Ponting. He will be under some more pressure next season. I don't see any advantage of letting him go and bringing in Clarke to the captain's role. I don't we will gain from that. I'm just guessing but I'm not sure Clarke has what it takes to be a great captain.

Who would replace Ponting or should he slot further down the order to just above Haddin? Who should be the next captain?

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Agreed he is not a top notch captain, but the thing that may save him is there is no obvious successor. Clarke is not an option ATM, the team will not die in the trenches for him. His loyalty is to spending as much time with Lara as he can, not complete commitment to the team.

Stan 101 said:

He has certainly been a stellar batsman for many series. I was particularily impressed with his form after the 2005 Ashes. He was in fine form in 2006. Second best bat for OZ, though? Sure he averages over 50, he has faced some good bowling; good but not great.
How did he score his runs? Often with great starts from bats like Taylor, Hayden and Langer setting a platform. Sure, he dug in on some great occasions but generally he was on a winning side. he also never had to face Warne or McGrath.

Ian Chappell for instance on averaged 37 or so but look at how, when and who against those runs were scored. And he was in a team that weren't far and away the best. England and the Windies were strong sides. Chappell played a hell of a lot of cricket against the pace attack of West Indies.

Allan Border deserves more credit as a bat in history. He was playing in a second rate team (in all fairness to the players) and was again playing against some excellent quality bowlers from around the world. Border batted opening, first and second drop all the way down to number 6.
He often had to bat with the tail in the later part of his career and often excelled.

Greg Chappell is another who was a true 50 plus batting average.


In my view, a 50 - 55 batting average today is = to a late 30 - early 40 from 20 - 30 years ago. But it really is unfair to judge between eras.

cheers,

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Completely right, no way to compare between eras, but i think the Chappell brothers and other greats who had to combat the fire of the Windies would make mincemeat out of most attacks nowadays.

The narrative seems to be "Ponting silences critics!" So it was all part of a grand plan to get rolled for 127. Good to know Sorry but his mediocre captaincy was just better than the godawful captaincy of Pakistan. About which I smell a rat by the way. We know Pak are capable of throwing a match. This time, I noticed there was on the commentary a welcome to Pakistan viewers who were getting their pictures from about 1.30pm or so in the afternoon. At that point the fields suddenly became attacking. They got the last two wickets very quickly. Then they seemed to chase down the runs genuinely desiring a win.

Conspiracy theory: they got word to wait for TV coverage in Pakistan to begin, before completing their "inevitable" victory. It was desired for the people of Pakistan to watch the victory... so the order may have been, "keep the runs down till then", hence defensive fields, dropped catches, waste of video reviews. They'd have banked on chasing down anything up to 150. Hell it's less than par for 20/20 totals.

Nutty theory perhaps... but if that's what happened, it backfired. Have to say well played to the Aussies but I smelled a rat when the Pakistan skipper chose not to attack but to gently play in the batsmen, kept a spinner on who bowled pies and full tosses, easy singles all over the place. A warehouse C grade captain would have known better.

A bit quiet here since Ponting scored almost 300 runs in a single test match. Not bad at all.

UBIQUITOUS said:

A bit quiet here since Ponting scored almost 300 runs in a single test match. Not bad at all.

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Possibly, but if the outfielder had taken the catch in the first innings that any Saturday D-grader would have snared when Ponting was on 0......

Not to mention the pitch which is a batsmans' paradise, you'd have to be a clown not to get runs.

springhill said:

Possibly, but if the outfielder had taken the catch in the first innings that any Saturday D-grader would have snared when Ponting was on 0......

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That's cricket...

springhill said:

Not to mention the pitch which is a batsmans' paradise, you'd have to be a clown not to get runs.

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I'm inferring that you are saying that besides Clark and Ponting, the other players are clowns? With the exception of Hussey, I'd have to agree with you there.

Ponting will go down as a legend of the game. Captaining legends do not get kicked out when they've just turned 36. Ponting has and should have another 3-4 years while the rest of the team gains experience, just like Border and Waugh before him. Mark Taylor was an exception as he had a meagre batting average of 43 and at the time of retirement in 1999, Australia had a dearth of batting riches.

gav said:

That's cricket...

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Exactly... a double century and 25 boundaries, ouch!

good on you ponting, would have been easy to lay down and take
it but to his credit he put up the fight and came up trumps.

j c

UBIQUITOUS said:

I'm inferring that you are saying that besides Clark and Ponting, the other players are clowns? With the exception of Hussey, I'd have to agree with you there.

Ponting will go down as a legend of the game. Captaining legends do not get kicked out when they've just turned 36. Ponting has and should have another 3-4 years while the rest of the team gains experience, just like Border and Waugh before him. Mark Taylor was an exception as he had a meagre batting average of 43 and at the time of retirement in 1999, Australia had a dearth of batting riches.

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Yep, absolutely, Watson.... clown. North, Haddin.... clown, clown. Even Clarke, he's a clown too.

Are you saying Ponting should play til 38-39? No way in hell! Personally besides his 43 batting average i think Taylor was the best captain of the lot, not to mention possibly the best slips catcher the game has seen.

Maybe a little premature to call for Ponting's head, maybe the Q should have been 'Should he lead Australia to the next Ashes series in England?'.... a definitive no in my book.

springhill said:

Yep, absolutely, Watson.... clown. North, Haddin.... clown, clown. Even Clarke, he's a clown too.

Are you saying Ponting should play til 38-39? No way in hell! Personally besides his 43 batting average i think Taylor was the best captain of the lot, not to mention possibly the best slips catcher the game has seen.

Maybe a little premature to call for Ponting's head, maybe the Q should have been 'Should he lead Australia to the next Ashes series in England?'.... a definitive no in my book.

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Dude, quit the effigy burning and come out with who your eleven would be without the 'clowns'. This should be interesting

Man it beats me why people are so critical. For a player to score 219 and 89 in successive innings requires a great round of applause. Punter is far from over and if he did get the boot or retire who would replace him. Come on boys lets have a bit more positivity here eh?

Haha ha aha ah ha a ahheh hheehe ........ Undefeated all summer. Looks like the "clowns" did the job rather nicely wouldn't you say !

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...es-ricky-ponting/story-e6frg7mf-1225848235724 ..... read it and weep !

The only clowns are the ones that rubbish quality. Cant quite work out their agenda. I come from the lets be positive school.

Bring on the Ashes

No chance he will end up being remembered as one of the greats