Punter Under The Pump
Ricky Ponting
It seems that a lot of Criticism is being thrown at Ricky Ponting at the moment, especially from Rodney Hogg in an article he recently wrote.
Hogg has called for Ponting to be replaced by Simon Katich & pointed out six Ricky Ponting captaincy blunders:
- WINNING the toss and batting in the second Test at Edgbaston in 2005, after losing Glenn McGrath to injury half an hour before the game.
- IN THE second Test in Nagpur in 2008 when Australia had India 6-166 in its second innings, Ponting chose to bowl Mike Hussey when concerned about the over rate.
- IN THE second Test of the 2008-09 Australia-South Africa series at the MCG, having no obvious plan to dismiss tailender Dale Steyn (76) and refusing to bowl Simon Katich, preferring an injured Andrew Symonds.
- IN THIS year’s Ashes series choosing not to bowl Ben Hilfenhaus in the first Test at Cardiff when Australia needed one wicket to win.
- BOWLING Peter Siddle for 10 straight overs in the first innings against the West Indies in Adelaide when the speedster should be used in five or six-over bursts.
- NOT picking Nathan Hauritz in the Ashes decider at The Oval when English spinner Graeme Swann took eight wickets.
On top of this, Ponting has also fallen out of the top 10 batsmen in the world for the first time since 2002. The most recent figures released by the International Cricket Council have Ponting sitting 12th.
He has been the number one batsman on three occasions, in 2003, 2005 & 2006.
Pontingis Australia’s 42nd skipper and took over from Steve Waugh, inheriting a great team.
From the squad that first toured Sri Lanka under the captaincy of Ponting (R T Ponting, A C Gilchrist, M L Hayden, J L Langer, D R Martyn, D S Lehmann, A Symonds, S K Warne, M S Kasprowicz, J N Gillespie, S C G MacGill), all have retired or are not playing first class cricket.
Right or wrong, Hogg is entitled to his opinion. Pontingis not going to have the success that Steve Waugh had & comparing the two is unfair as Waugh was an attacking captain, but he could afford to be with his side.
I have complied a table of statistic from the last three test captains to compare, so draw your own conclusion.
| Alana Border | Steve Waugh | Ricky Ponting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matches as Captain | 93 | 57 | 63 |
| Won as Captain | 32 (34.41%) | 41 (71.93%) | 40 (63.49%) |
| Lost as Captain | 22 (23.66%) | 9 (15.79%) | 11 (17.46%) |
| Batting Avg. (as Cap) | 50.56 (50.95 ) | 51.06 (52.31 ) | 55.61 (55.25 ) |
| Bowling Avg. (as Cap) | 39.10 (40.04 ) | 37.45 (113.33 ) | 48.40 (52.00 ) |
During the 2009 Ashes tour of England the Fourth Ashes Test was a highlight for Australia, by defeating the poms by an innings & 80 runs.
In the end England won back the Ashes in the last test, sending us packing back to Australia.
