A young friend of mine tweeted after tonight's match...
Australia meet West Indies... at the Airport !
That was funny and a lot of people are rejoicing the fall of a Champion.
Let Australia sulk. Stronger or weaker, they will come back.
But there was one man who went out tonight perhaps for the last time in a World Cup.
I never liked Ponting. His earliest claim to fame was on a juniors tour of India when he flayed all the junior Indian bowlers. Many of them never played senior Cricket. Then he made more news for pub brawls than for his on field exploits. Ever since he made his debut, I had a special dislike for him.
I disliked Ponting because...
He had the best team playing with him or under him through most of his career.
He blasted India in the 2003 World Cup Final and that scar can't heal. Not even after this win.
He had Shane Warne and Glen McGrath giving him wickets whenever he wanted.
He was the most prolific scorer in the new millennium and not Sachin.
He almost threatened to overtake Sachin at one time and break most of his records.
He had three World Cups in his kitty and two of them as as Captain.
But most importantly, he had never lost a World Cup match as a Captain.
I hated Ponting because...
He had transgressed the spirit of Cricket more often than anyone could care to remember.
But he somehow escaped with much lighter punishment than others, especially Asians.
He lead from the front all the unholy activity during the infamous Sydney Test in 2008.
Forget walking, he regularly contested Umpiring decisions and mostly escaped Scott free.
And most importantly for never walking but expecting opponents to 'walk' !
There can be a million reasons to dislike Ponting and hate Ponting.
But he was a Genius without a doubt. A flawed Genius if there is one.
For one who had not lost a single World Cup match and had overseen annihilation of all the 3 South Asian Teams in 3 successive World Cup Finals, Ponting went out against 3 South Asian Teams. He couldn't beat any one of them this time.
Sri Lanka were in a very good position before the rains intervened.
Pakistan gave Ponting the first taste of World Cup defeat in a dozen years.
And India knocked him and his team out of the World Cup tonight.
He was under pressure from all corners. For the LCD episode. For the Steve Smith episode. For not walking. For talking. And for being Ricky Ponting ! But what a way to go. He was out of form for longer than even Rahul Dravid. Boy, did he choose a match to strike form ? He couldn't have done anything more or better. He and his team just ran into a slightly better team on the day.
Ricky Ponting has tormented Indians for so long and so badly, it is a relief to see him walk away into sunset or to hell.
But before that, let us say gracefully...
He was such a bloody mean Champion Cricketer !
And he went out with his head held high !
Good bye Ponting !
SPun Doctor
Also blogs @ http://diehardcricketfans.org/category/contributed/govind-raj-shenoy/
The current Australian cricket is mediocre .. Its not a big deal if the Indians defeated them..
ReplyDeleteBeing an India I would be more happy if we had defeated the Australian team who had Glenn McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden.. Without those 3 big guns.. they are just another team..
Yes, it's kind of strange to not dislike him even in the smugness of our win... because you cannot deny a Champion his due!
ReplyDeleteIn 2003, after we lost the Finals, Ganguly had said that we lost to a better team. And Australia indeed was a better team then, and again in 2007. Now Australia can say that we lost to a better team. And whether or not Ponting plays again in One Day cricket, I am glad that this knock will always ensure that he leaves on his own terms!
Well said, Govind. While I never liked Ponting the man and the captain, I did not like the batsman as well. His technique was quite faulty but his reflexes and eye-sight were so good, he made up for that. Also his ability to hit EVERY loose ball, without fail, was an outstanding sheild against his suspect technique. First time I warmed up to the batsman was after his superlative innings of 156 in the second innings that helped Australia draw the 3rd Ashes test at Old Trafford in 2005. (http://www.espncricinfo.com/engvaus/engine/match/215686.html). That was an innings played to SAVE a game; hardly his strength. Typical to the man and typical to an aussie, his best came after a long slump, when the chips were down. How much I may hate him for all the things you have mentioned in the blog, my admiration for him is an involuntary function...just can't help. As much as I admire the batsman, I would be happy to see him loose captainship to concentrate on his batting. Another couple of years he is required in Australian team..
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, You can't call the current Aussie team mediocre. Champion Cricketers like Warne, McGrath, Hayden and Ponting are not replaced overnight. It takes a generation. Wait till Laxman, Sachin and Sehwag retire. You'll know what will happen to Team India. In spite of all, the same team beat England hollow in a bilateral series just before the cup. Even here, they lost to just 2 teams and when both of them played out of their skins.
ReplyDeleteShridhar, it is hateful admiration ! The Devil was for a long time, the best batsman in the world.
ReplyDeleteDeep, we too have a batsman technically just 33% of Ponting. But he too has terrorized bowlers world over with his hand eye coordination and simply his approach. Viru Sehwag is the most amazing dystechnical batsman of our times !
@Annonymous, really!! If this aussie team was mediocre it makes the Indian team that beat them after a bit of huffing and puffing, a little better than mediocre!! One can call Aussies mediocre only at one's peril. There are quite a few players in domestic cricket at present who would fit in to a few current test playing sides. They were blinded by uninterrupted run at the top and did not plan well for the future. In this campaign, the real problem was Ponting's captainship that seems to have divided the team...
ReplyDeletewell said doc.......:-)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say the current team are mediocre - but then I am an Aussie, so I'm biased. I would say that the team we had under Waugh, that Ponting inherited, was extraordinary and that just makes the current team look mediocre in comparison. It's a shame, but we were spoiled with that team and will probably never have another one like it.
ReplyDeleteIt's not set in stone that Ponting will retire/be fired. There were a lot of rumours, but it is still to be decided. I hope he doesn't, only because I am not convinced there is a decent replacement there. From his personal POV, though, he may feel it's the right time. He's had a lot of success up until very recently, whatever his critics say, and to leave now is to go out looking like a battered warrior who admitted in the end he lost his way. Also, his wife is pregnant again and he may simply want to be home more.
Govind, great piece. Well done for saying what many Ponting critics won't - that the real reason they don't like him is because he was so good. I have my moments when I dislike Ponting the man, but over all I like him; I think he has been a good captain - an excellent one day captain - and I will be sorry for him to go.
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