Captain oh captain

Today Ricky Ponting resigned as the captain of the Australian cricket teams, ODI and Test cricket. Now as Saffers we are known to have a love-hate relationship with the Aussies, that’s probably because they’re what we want to be. They are what we know we can be if certain crucial quarters pull the right finger and spend the money wisely … another story for another day.

I have to say though that today I do feel sorry for Ricky, a first-class competitor that was absolutely devout to his cause in the Australian cricket team as a player and more so as the national captain. Under Ricky, Australia rode the crest of the world dominance wave for a good decade and have also seen the worst, losing two Ashes series and various other losses, which have shown some glaring managerial issues of Australian cricket. But the world is round and it too turns and nothing is immune to the cycle — not even Australian cricket.

Ricky made his first-class debut for Tasmania in November 1992 at the young age of 17 years old but had to wait till 1995 to be called up to the ODI team and later that year his Test debut. He assumed the ODI captaincy in 2002 under the Test captaincy of the great Steve Waugh, who Dr Ali Bacher rates as one of the finest competitors of all time. Ricky had to wait till 2004 to take the Test captaincy. He remains the most successful Australian captain of all time!!! He has 48 victories in 77 tests from 2004 to December 2010 while as a player he has taken part in 99 victories, the most by anyone in history.

His career stats make for sensational reading:

Competition	Test	ODIs	FC	List A
Matches	152	352	255	424
Runs scored	12,363	13,082	21,332	15,438
Batting average	53.51	42.75	55.98	42.29
100s/50s	39/56	29/79	73/94	33/94
Top score	257	164	257	164
Balls bowled	539	150	1,434	349
Wickets	5	3	14	8
Bowling average	48.40	34.66	54.85	33.62
5 wickets in one inning	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	1/0	1/12	2/10	3/34
Catches/stumpings	178/–	152/–	270/–	184/–

A stand-out season, which I believe says a lot about him as a competitor, player and captain was the 2005-06 season as detailed in Wikipedia:

In any case, Australia were untroubled during the 2005–06 season. They whitewashed the West Indies 3–0 before defeating South Africa 2–0 in three Tests. They then reciprocated South Africa’s tour and recorded a 3–0 whitewash in the Tests. In the series against the West Indies, Ponting scored a century in each innings of the first Test in Brisbane, 149 and 104 not out. In his first Test as captain in front of the Tasmanian public, Ponting managed 17 and 0 not out, and he ended the series with 329 runs at 82.25.

Graeme Smith

There is no doubt that Ricky has cricket in his blood and gave out as much as he got (sometimes more). World Cup events do generally shape players’ careers, less so in cricket, however I can assure of this, that Ricky flew home with his teammates after their bags were packed by one of the hosts and favourites, India. He never made excuses for poor performances and hardly made use of the famous drawing board, always believing and backing his players for whom he took everything!

The cricket world is a better place because of a character like Ricky and tribute is due to the great warrior and defender of the Australian cricket team and country, shown more so in his resignation speech where he is only stepping down as captain but not retiring, he believes he can still offer plenty to the game and to his teammates as the senior pro and I agree with him fully. Perhaps more so in the pure form of the game than in the ODI and pyjama parties.

Captain Ponting, this is one South African that salutes you and your contribution to Australian and world cricket. Thanks for the amazing tussles you have played a role in and I am glad that you have decided to still play on!