Ricky Thomas Ponting

[Dissident]

Wonderful batsman....
but in my mind an absolute germ!
The sight of him with his hands on his hips abusing opposition and trying to intimidate umpires has gotten very tiresome for me.
Whenever the Aussies don't win, he's got an excuse to carry on like a petulant child!
I'm over him...
Some people I know agree, your thoughts?? How will he be remembered??

[the joker]

for starters i dont know who Richard Ponting is ???
if you are talking about Ricky Ponting he is an apsolute gun and not a germ

[wycbloods]

Ricky Ponting is a great cricketer but i have heard this Dick Ponting is a bit of a germ .

[catchisthecry]

He sure is a Dick

[rogernumber10]

He's Ricky on his birth certificate

[catchisthecry]

Wow! you learn something you new everyday...

[rogernumber10]

Am personally of the view that Ricky is a very cute name for a three-year-old, but not sure it quite works for a guy at 34 years old if he's facing three quicks on a fast Durban deck at 4-60 and he's just been hit on the fingers, and he's defending a series lead. At that point, you need a proper name and I think he probably needs to be Richard, or Dick, or maybe adopt the middle name Tom / Thomas, like Doug Walters did (who didn't want to be Kevin).
Or, he could go old school like some high-brow Pom from the late 1800s and refer to himself as RT Ponting, and simply never tell anyone what the RT actually stand form.

By the way, I think he stands on the second-tier of Australian batsmen, level only with Greg Chappell, and behind only the Don.

As a bloke, he's great off the field and a white-line fever case on it, who fights his hardest for every single inch. I respect that, and I think he gets it right 98pct of the time and he's man enough to stand up and say he's wrong the other 2pct of the time, when he is wrong (Bourboun Beefsteak matter, various blow-ups as a rising kid with Duncan Spencer, harbhajan in Sharjah in mid 90s, misbehaviour on tour in mid 90s). As captain, he's tried to implement walk on fielder statement agreements, tried to protect various protocols of the game (except over-rates, where he dawdles by over-thinking it too much and not trusting bowlers to just bowl) and has the traditional Australian leader blind spot to sledging, in that what we see as pretty normal, nearly everyone else in world cricket sees as over-the top. He better than S waugh, G Chappell, Border and many others in this regard but falls behind the yardstick which is Taylor.

No disgrace to not match up to Taylor in 'carrying the position of Australian captain' because Tubby did that as well as any we've had - Benaud, Bradman and a few of the real old school guys of early last century.

I should stop writing now

[dedja]

Or like Abraham Benjamin ... better known as AB de Villiers.

[catchisthecry]

I agree whole-heartedly with his batting, unbelievably consistent and fantastic to watch.
Just had a conversation with some mates last night and it was a common theme - his antics when they don't win are getting boring! but you're right.... germ probably a bit harsh!

[Dogwatcher]

On the Ricky thing, he did attempt to push his name at Rick at one stage.
But, for all of us, he's remained that cute little Ricky who made his debut in Perth so manyyyy years ago.

Even Silver Spoons actor Ricky Schroeder managed to drop the y once he became an adult!

[silicone skyline]

Ricky Balboa

[RoosterMarty]

I can't select an option!

Brilliant batsman, one of the best I will ever see, but I wouldn't say he's a "poor" Captain that is a bit harsh. We have been blessed with some wonderful Captains over the years, Ponting is not one of those but he isn't as bad as some people make him out to be.

[rod_rooster]

Geez critisising his name is a bit lame. Hardly his fault and to be honest what has it got to do with anything. Ricky is one of the finest batsmen we are likely to see. He is right up there with the best of all time despite unfairly being excluded from this company by many. As captain he is no Taylor as has been pointed out but he is the best option we have. I have been critical of his captaincy recently but you can't doubt him as a batsman. He has played some of the finest innings i have seen and those talking about his name and what effect that would have when it's backs to the wall stuff obviously have forgotten the 150 he made on a 5th day pitch to save the 4th test of the Ashes series in 05.

[Gozu]

I agree Ponting is one of the finest batsman I'll ever have the pleasure of seeing. I remember a year or so ago there was a debate on here about the best batsman of the modern era or something and for me it's: 1. Lara, 2. Ponting & 3. Tendulkar.

[rod_rooster]

I agree Ponting is one of the finest batsman I'll ever have the pleasure of seeing. I remember a year or so ago there was a debate on here about the best batsman of the modern era or something and for me it's: 1. Lara, 2. Ponting & 3. Tendulkar.

I agree with that 100%.

[FlyingHigh]

By the way, I think he stands on the second-tier of Australian batsmen, level only with Greg Chappell, and behind only the Don.

As a bloke, he's great off the field and a white-line fever case on it, who fights his hardest for every single inch. I respect that, and I think he gets it right 98pct of the time and he's man enough to stand up and say he's wrong the other 2pct of the time, when he is wrong (Bourboun Beefsteak matter, various blow-ups as a rising kid with Duncan Spencer, harbhajan in Sharjah in mid 90s, misbehaviour on tour in mid 90s). As captain, he's tried to implement walk on fielder statement agreements, tried to protect various protocols of the game (except over-rates, where he dawdles by over-thinking it too much and not trusting bowlers to just bowl) and has the traditional Australian leader blind spot to sledging, in that what we see as pretty normal, nearly everyone else in world cricket sees as over-the top. He better than S waugh, G Chappell, Border and many others in this regard but falls behind the yardstick which is Taylor.

No disgrace to not match up to Taylor in 'carrying the position of Australian captain' because Tubby did that as well as any we've had - Benaud, Bradman and a few of the real old school guys of early last century.

I should stop writing now

You should keep writing R10, because this is just about spot-on, esp the part about comparing him to other captains. Agree over-rates is one area that needs improvement, regardless of how slowly the opposition bowl theirs (ie Poms on Saturday night when we were chasing quick runs).

The one question I would have, and I was too young too see G Chappell as captain, but you don't rate his captaincy too highly?

[rogernumber10]

Geez critisising his name is a bit lame. Hardly his fault and to be honest what has it got to do with anything. Ricky is one of the finest batsmen we are likely to see. He is right up there with the best of all time despite unfairly being excluded from this company by many. As captain he is no Taylor as has been pointed out but he is the best option we have. I have been critical of his captaincy recently but you can't doubt him as a batsman. He has played some of the finest innings i have seen and those talking about his name and what effect that would have when it's backs to the wall stuff obviously have forgotten the 150 he made on a 5th day pitch to save the 4th test of the Ashes series in 05.

It's one of my lesser criticisms

[westozfalcon]

All-time great batsman, poor captain and for continually depositing saliva into the palms of his hands.

[rogernumber10]

The one question I would have, and I was too young too see G Chappell as captain, but you don't rate his captaincy too highly?

i thought Greg was middling as a captain, but he does suffer from coming straight after his brother. Ian's effort to garner a 2-0 win in the Windies in 73 was an amazing effort and a couple of his wins over pakistan in 72-73 were stunningly engineered. Also, for a young team to draw in England in 72 was a great effort.
it wasn't hard though for Ian to captain Lillee and Thommo in 74-75 and then Greg got them for just one full series a year later, and destroyed the West Indies.
That said, Greg's well ahead of other contemporaries -- Hughes, Yallop -- but a couple of rungs down on brother Ian and Mark Taylor and probably below Border and Waugh. Border improved enormously as he gained confidence with wins (and it helped to have Warne and McGrath) while Waugh had those two bowlers at their peak, but did a great job in giving Hayden and Langer the confidence to believe in themselves after both were nearly lost as potential stars under Taylor.

My view of Greg was that after playing in a side that took the world by storm for 18 months in the period late 74 to early 76 when Lillee and Thommo devastated two touring sides and won an Ashes series in England in a wet summer, he got frustrated when he led a side that was back to the pack. After world series cricket when Greg got the main job back, he was leading a declining side. Thommo was never the same from the moment he did his shoulder at Adelaide oval in late 76, Greg had to carry the batting with nary the support that Ian used to have, apart from Border, and it was basically just AB, Lillee (now his in great fast medium incarnation but not in his terrifying quick flower of youth) and Marsh (whose batting was still sliding away) who were consistently world-class apart from Greg in the side from 79-83.

I think Greg and Ponting are still clearly the two best Australian batsmen I've seen, but as a captain it just didn't quite happen.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Ponting, as others have said, a world class batsman, possibly the best Australian batsman I've seen. I've always struggled with the Ponting v Greg Chappell argument, Ponting's record slightly superior but G.Chappell played at a time when the depth of world bowling was the best ever. Ponting is certainly the best puller of the ball forward of square I have seen. Backward of square he tends to loft the ball a little but still scores plenty of runs there.

As a captain, he's okay at setting fields for bowlers and against certain batsmen, but his use of bowler is poor. IMHO, he fails repeatedly at using the correct bowler for a given situation. He also lacks the ability for the instinctive that Taylor and I.Chappell had. His gambles appear to be based more on hunches than educated assessment. Tactically brittle, as seen by his decision to send England into bat in the 2nd Test of the 2005 Ashes. With McGrath not playing, Australia 1-0 in the series, I could never imagine previous Aussie leaders making that choice.

In his defence, I'd have to say no Australian captain in the history of the game has received such poor treatment by the media which possibly accounts for his demeanour. Some articles written about him by idiots like Roebuck were disgraceful.