Punter’s Three Sides

With Ricky Ponting decided to retire after the Perth test, here a look at some good, bad and ugly side of his illustrious career

The good…

Ricky Ponting is one of the all time great batsman and a great fighter of international cricket with more than 26000 runs and 71 centuries and is a master of pull shot and cover drive. Who can forget his knock in 2003 World Cup which blew India’s  chances of winning the worldcup. Also he has scored 3 double centuries against India in short What VVS Laxman has been to Australia, Ponting has been to India. Also he is one of the greatest captain of all time. He has won 48 Tests while leading his side with only South African Graeme Smith closing in. As an ODI captain, he is simply in a league of his own. He has won 165 out of 230 matches with an amazing success rate of 76%. To put this in perspective, compatriot Allan Border is the only captain with more than 100 ODI wins (107). This is one record that may last for a long long time. He also captained his team to two ODI World Cup wins.

The bad…

Ashes is one of the most fiercely fought series between Australia and England. A loss here means a big loss of face in the particular country. He has lost not one but three Ashes series under his captaincy of which 3-1 defeat on home soil was the most humiliating considering that Australia had won 8 straight Ashes series before Ponting took over. While Ponting stormed the cricketing world with both his batting and captaincy, he faded away in both towards the end. He failed to have a Test series average greater than 35 for four series before the India tour in Australia early this year revived his career. But he flopped again with West Indies and South Africa forcing him to finally call it a day. He faded away in the ODI scene too and the twilight of his captaincy was a sad affair where he was totally clueless. As captain he went out in the quarters of the ODI World Cup and also failed to make an impact in the international T20 scene.

The ugly…

While Waugh started the process of mental disintegration and sledging, Ponting as captain took it to abysmal levels. Ponting led a brash and rude team that failed to adhere to the spirit of the game for most of the time. He has claimed a catch even though the ball had clearly touched the ground. He has raised his finger and told the batsman to get off the field even as umpires were in consultation over a doubtful decision. He has vociferously argued with umpires. Ponting has used a graphite bat, which was later declared illegal by the ICC. He once hurled abuses at the England dressing room while getting off the field and even told Sharad Pawar to clear the podium when Australia won the ICC Champions Trophy. And who can forget Monkeygate, one of the ugliest incidents of cricket? Relations between India and Australia had never been so low and Ponting was at the centre of it all. 

Source : Sify.com/sports