Ricky Ponting - The Modern Gladiator!

The nets were over but a young lad, stayed to watch an Indian prodigy play in his maiden tour to Australia. After 19 years, Tendulkar is still creating records, few could surpass and surprisingly the same lad who stayed back destined to break some of them.

Seldom have we witnessed such immensely talented prodigies playing at the same time. Incidentally both debuted at very young age but their performances and approach are absolutely contradictory. While families in India continue to discover Tendulkar in their child, Ricky Thomas Ponting remains an enigma whose superlative batting is eclipsed by controversies. This is where the comparison between these two legends ends.

Ponting started playing at age 7 and by 15 was one of the promising students at the cricket academy in Adelaide. While Tendulkar idolized Gavaskar and Sir Vivian Richards, Ponting enjoyed watching his childhood heroes Kim Hughes and David Boon. Both Boon and Ponting debuted for Tasmania when they were 17 and have played over 100 tests. Both were selected for Australia almost at the similar ages – Boon - 23 and Ponting- 21. While Boon was a prolific opener, Mark Waugh epitomized elegance, Border and Steve patient run accumulators, Ponting with his stylish batting and fielding appears an amalgamation of these legends; and yet he is distinctly different.

Scoring a brilliant 96 on debut against Sri Lanka in 1995-96, Ponting went on to play in only six test matches. At Leeds in 1997, he scored his maiden century against England and since then never looked back. The hallmark of good batsman is his ability to consistently score runs and Ponting is the only cricketer to have twice scored more than 1500 runs in Test matches in a calendar year. 102 V/s West Indies at Jaipur, and Ponting became the youngest centurion in one day international. Unlike Boon, Ponting’s record in the Indian subcontinent is alarmingly dismal but his overall performance in 125 tests, with 36 test centuries, 41 fifties, 4 double centuries and scoring more than 10000 runs clearly reflects his abilities. Playing in more than 300 one day matches with 26 centuries, 64 fifties at an average of over 40, he has the ability to dominate the game. While Ishant Sharma provides us our quantum of solace, the memories of Ponting’s 140 in 2003 World Cup final, still haunt us.

Known as ‘Punter’, for betting on horse and greyhound races, Ponting’s off field behaviour had him inebriated while on tour and once got him involved in a bar fight. On field, he has been fined for dissent on more than one occasion. Ponting appears arrogant, but who can forget his enthusiasm to run and advise his young tormentor and team mate Ishant during the maiden IPL tournament.

Ponting has a good solid defense but his strength lies in batting aggressively and treating bowlers with utter disdain. Strangely Ponting continues to shuffle against pace in the initial overs and too often commits early to spinners. However, this clink in his technique has not precluded from relentlessly clobbering the best bowlers across the park. With amazing foot work, timing and strength, the opposition ends up seeing the Kookaburra logo smiling from Ponting’s bat. His off and cover drives are simply unbelievable. Ponting’s pulls, hooks, deft cuts and back foot drives are a delight for eyes while his running between the wickets makes even the sharpest fielders look lethargic.

Like batting, Ponting’s fielding is equally brilliant. Standing in covers or in slip, Ponting has excellent reflex and hits the stumps with amazing regularity. Ponting occasionally bowls and has captured the prized scalp of Michael Vaughan.

What distinguishes leaders from laggards, and perhaps greatness from mediocrity, is the ability to imagine what could be. While Taylor and Waugh were conventional but innovative leaders, Ponting’s leadership contradicts his imaginative batting. Ponting’s captaincy in recent series has been deplorable with poor team selection, dismal over rates and for being extremely over cautious. In 2005 Ponting charged the English team for not playing in proper spirit and ironically in 2007, Ponting faced similar but severe criticism from Kumble. On both occasions, the Australian media called for Ponting’s removal from captaincy. Unfortunately the increased sledging by Ponting’s team continues to bring more chagrin to Australian media and public.

It would be worthwhile if Ponting relinquishes captaincy so as to regain his focus on batting. Perhaps it would also help to redefine his image. Having said that the responsibilities of captaincy seem to fuel his belligerence but more often it has subdued Ponting’s penchant for a brawl, ensuring the world didn’t loose a talented player. The question remains – for how long?

Despite these challenges, Ponting leads his team with grit, determination and has accomplished tremendous records. After taking over from Steve Waugh, Ponting defeated Sri Lanka 3-0 on their soil and regained the Ashes with an unprecedented 5-0 victory. Like Waugh, Ponting has also achieved 16 consecutive Test victories as captain. Under his leadership, Australia has not lost a single game in World Cup and won the World Cup twice. But perhaps his greatest challenge lies in building a new Australian side and to win the world cup for third time.

Hopefully people will acknowledge Ponting as a prolific batsman next to the gentle colossal Sachin Tendulkar and the majestic Brain Lara. But unfortunately history will remember Ponting as a gladiator who never learnt to view cricket as gentleman’s game. But aren’t the soft spoken more admired than the outspoken!