Struggling Ponting wants his mates, not a process or plan
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By Geoff Lawson, 2 Feb 2009 Geoff Lawson is a Roar Pro
So Australia only just failed to beat New Zealand in the first game of the five match series. It was close. Very close.
Any game that goes to the last ball is exciting, and usually the team that wins doesn’t really care about how they got across the line. They celebrate and move on to the next caravan stop.
The team that loses however begins the ‘what if’ game. The (generally) long list of ‘what ifs’ (aka WIs) that could have gone the other way and changed the result of the match are dragged out and forensically examined.
A quick single missed, an indefinite call between runners, a wide here, a no-ball there, a half volley not put away, a three turned into a two or a single misfield or fumble.
That’s all it takes to lose a one run game.
Coaches analyse and practice all manner of things to eliminate some, or all of those WIs. Other WIs come from selectors and physios and Chief executives and Chairman. Australian Cricket has a truck load of ‘what ifs’ at the moment.
Ricky Ponty will no doubt find a few more WIs after Sunday night’s fifth loss in a row. He will find it difficult to beat one of his classic WIs after the Melbourne loss to South Africa when he told the ABC Radio reporter that his team lost because “we failed to use the wind well enough … when we batted”.
Most people have another name for ‘what ifs’: excuses.
Ponting has yet to recognise (publicly at least) the quality of his opponents or the fact that his team has been outplayed. He prefers to concentrate on the WIs and plays an indirect blame game within his own squad.
He is not alone in denial of the state of the national cricket team. Ponty does not like to admit that mistakes are being made at any levels of his team’s game, but you can hardly blame him for head in the sand theory when neither his Chairman, Chairman of selectors or coaching staff can do so either.
It is prophetically bandied about by psychologists that the first step to a solution for a problem is to admit that you actually have a problem. Hello Cricket Australia! Wakey wakey!!
Ponting wants Andrew Symonds back in ‘my team’ as soon as possible. It would be nice if Andrew made a run or took a wicket to justify his place in any team.
Oh, and that bit about ‘admitting you have a problem’ applies to other addictive behaviors Andrew may be succumbing to. Ian Chappell thinks that bringing Symonds back into the team in his present state would be unsettling for the team. You bet it would . A strong ethical stance is required here Rick, this is not about picking your mates to have a game as happened at the start of this summer when Symonds was brought back prematurely against New Zealand despite his Queensland team mates saying he was mentally a galaxy away and not surprisingly hadn’t made a run in domestic matches.
The Chairman of Selectors can never be found and now the newly installed Chairman of the Board (who apparently is being paid a handsome salary to act in a fulltime position, in effect becoming an Executive Chairman) never says a word about the declining standards and the actions of his captain.
There seems to be no process and no plan, either in selections, discipline, match day tactics or team balance.
Where is Cameron White headed? A specialist number 7 who doesn’t bowl?
Sean Marsh’s injury may well force a re-think from the wise men. Brad Haddin should be opening the batting. He is the perfect man for the position, he is wasted down the order (although the current top order failures have seen him in action early).
With Haddin up at 1, another bowler can be selected, eg a specialist spinner!
The most in form batsmen in Australia at the moment is Simon Katich, and where was he playing on Sunday afternoon? Yep, Newcastle Sportsground.
Brad Hodge not good enough guys? Maybe he’s not one of the glorious leader’s close buddies.
The rookie South African Captain Johan Botha out captained Ponting by the length of the Flemington straight. Dan Vettori has begun the series in similar vein.
Who is formulating the Australian match plan and has anyone seen the bowling coach (Troy Cooley)? He hasn’t been spotted all summer.
I don’t care how many WIs you come up with over the first game, you won’t solve too many long term problems unless you open your eyes and smell the roses (as Len Pascoe once so eloquently put it ).
Denial and excuse making are for losers.
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Spiro Zavos said | February 2nd 2009 @ 7:32am | Report comment
It seems pretty obvious that run-scorers like Katich, Hodge and Hughes have to come into the side, whether they are part of the Ricky Ponting favourites club or not. When Ponting called on the selrevctors not to pick Hughes for South Africa he was turning his back on the best of Australian cricket, the selection of a brilliant youngster. Like himself some time ago. Has he forgotten that he was once like Hughes and the selectors gave him his chance.
El Capitan said | February 2nd 2009 @ 8:16am | Report comment
The team needs a sweep of players. White doesn’t bowl but bats at 7, no specialist spinner, Hussey not making enough runs all summer, but doesn’t get the Hayden treatment.
No this is a side in decline. I like the fact that they have kept Warner, Marsh ect. who are all young players. More senior players need to go, and bring in some up and coming talent.
The sundries was a discrace. NZ kept it to 2, while the aussies racked it up to 20odd. And all the stop start nature for every ball, whats going on with that? These are profressional cricketers. If they can’t put the ball where they know it needs to go, then they shouldn’t be playing. Stick to the KISS principle Ricky, otherwise you’ll have more embarrising days out.
Credit needs to go to NZ though. They bowled, fielded and played the game brilliantly. Even bringing up the players when it wasn’t a Power Play was more of a mental move. Veettori out foxed them, but with common sense.
Rickety Knees said | February 2nd 2009 @ 8:21am | Report comment
Totally agree Henry. Life as captain with Gilchrist and Warne standing next you in the slips was a peach. Add McGrath, Langer and Martyn into the mix and it was just about impossible to get it wrong.
Ponting’s captaincy has struggled since the departure of these champions. Ponting is clearly not a good tactician, he often fails to see or seize opportunities (Nagpur, Perth and Melbourne) with the situation being exacerbated by the ineffectual contributions of Jack Clarke, Hillditch and Nielsen. Australian cricket is presently a rudderless boat drifting from one loss to the next.
Hoy said | February 2nd 2009 @ 8:43am | Report comment
I don’t understand the fall from grace here. We went on a tour of India and turned into easy beats overnight. How could that happen?
The thing that irks me is that people in the know are still saying “no need to panic”. Well excuse me if I get the lifeboats out on the titanic a little early, but I would have thought that losing in India (no, wait, not losing in India… the way we lost in India) would have/should have had alarm bells ringing for the future summer series.
I tuned in yesterday when we were 3 for 26 or some ungoldly low number. I tuned out then knowing we had lost. I was amazed at how close it was when I turned on the news this morning.
Hard decisions need to be made, and I think our selectors have forgotten how.
JohnB said | February 2nd 2009 @ 8:43am | Report comment
On the what if front – wouldn’t it be nice if Michael Clarke at least hit the stumps as often as he gives away overthrows when automatically pinging at the stumps each time he fields cleanly? Difficult to quibble too much with anything Geoff is saying – mercifully, the ship may have sailed on Symonds after 2 more failures.
FunkieD said | February 2nd 2009 @ 9:14am | Report comment
Henry, fantastic article, it’s a real pity that no-one at CA is listening.
Perhaps the current CA management should fall on their swords so that the former (circa 84/85) board and selectors could be reinstated. At least that group knew how to build a strong team from the bottom up. We’re a lot stronger now, but we still have lots of work to do. And self congratulatory back slappers won’t get the job done.
Ponting is an employee of CA and they should treat him as such. It’s a privilege to play for Australia (although the salary makes the hardship somewhat easier), and the bottom line is that you also have to perform.
So far all of CA from the top down have had a very bad year. This group will fail to leave the game in Australia stronger than it was when they started.
LeftArmSpinner said | February 2nd 2009 @ 9:44am | Report comment
Henry, spot on. Start at the top and work your way down the ranks
Jerome said | February 2nd 2009 @ 10:56am | Report comment
excellent article. CA’s failure to acknowledge this slide can only hurt cricket in australia for the next few years. A complete reshuffle from the top down is definately needed. This recent series lost to sa (ODI) is the third major series they have lost in the last few years (inda & england last 2 summers)
Without the inclusion of your best players like hodge, hughes, katich, the boys club of ponting will continue to fail. Although m.hussey is a great cricketer, right now a break away from the team couldnt hurt. The best players of the last decade have all had sudden drops , exclusions from the team, only to come back stronger (m.waugh, hayden, ponting etc)
Pontings strategic failings also have to be noted. He has once again been out-captained. D.Vetorri has used a pretty meager bowling attack to outplay and bowl out australia with clever tactics and field placings.
A big shake up is needed otherwise SA will defend home turf and anothe series loss is around the corner…
stillmissit said | February 2nd 2009 @ 11:20am | Report comment
Great article Henry but nothing will be done as there is nobody with the strength or balls to do it. They are all in denial.
Why is there no heat on the coach? He was reappointed for the next 2 years when all wasn’t looking good.
Ponting has to return to where he is best suited as Australia’s #1 batsman and a smarter tactician and tougher person brought in as captain. This ship is going down with all hands if strong action isnt taken NOW but who can make the hard decisions?
This has all the hallmarks of a bunch of guys who have been on the gravy train too long and dont know their own history. They should have watched the Allan Border documentary that was reshown on ABC a week or so ago. This would have shown them what an loose bunch of leaders can do to Australian cricket and what herculean tasks are necessary to resurrect it once it slips.
WheresTheBloodySideline said | February 2nd 2009 @ 11:22am | Report comment
Can anyone tell me who the selectors are accountable to?
I realise that the batsmen are rightly copping it, but consider this oint.
We went into that game with three bowlers, 2 of which [Johnson and Tait] simply cannot be relied upon to bowl accurately.
This means that we must bowl Hopes for 10 overs, like it or not. Another 10 have to be found from guys who can’t bowl.
To my mind, Dave Hussey just hasn’t got it, with bat or with ball.
Unlikely, but is it possible that the batsmen are feeling the pressure before they even start because they can see that their team has such limited bowling options?