How will history judge Ponting the Leader?

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By Rickety Knees, 1 Jul 2009 Rickety Knees is a Roar Guru

Tagged:: Australian Cricket, Cricket, Ricky Ponting, Simon Katich, Steve Waugh, The Ashes

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There is no doubt that Ricky Ponting is a great Test batsman, verified by his batting statistics. But will Ponting be remembered as a great Test captain?

It was always going to be difficult to captain a side after Steve Waugh, a side with champion cricketers such as Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Langer amongst others. There was going to be a transition period to manage as senior players departed and new ones were tried.

The lowlights of Ponting’s captaincy were the last Ashes Tour of England, the last Indian tour of Australia, the Nagpur Test in India, the recent Tests against South Africa in Melbourne and Perth.

The last team to South Africa were young and inexperienced, which presented Ponting with a different leadership challenge. The team was filled with the enthusiasm of youth, with Johnson, Siddle and Hughes excelling and finally the use of Simon Katich’s confounding googlies.

They achieved an outstanding result and were well lead by Ponting.

The 2009 Ashes are upon us and Ponting has this opportunity to excel as a captain.

Will he do so?

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The Crowd Says (6) | Page 1 of Comments

vinay verma said | July 1st 2009 @ 11:27am | Report comment

RK- On pure stats alone he is probably Australia’s most “winning” captain. Since he took over from S Waugh in early 2004 he has won 38 and lost 9(includes the World XI tests and the two that Gilchrist captained when Ricky was out injured in india)
He won 20 straight from ) october 2005 to January 2008.
Ricky should be judged from January 2009 because in effect he has his own team now. No more reliant on legends. So far he has played 4 and won three. I believe he will become one of the alltime most successful captains by the time he retires. And his average has actually improved as a batsman since becoming captain( I stand to be corrected here)

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FIsher Price said | July 1st 2009 @ 1:51pm | Report comment

Ponting is a dreadful captain. He’s already lost in England and India, and at home to South Africa. His batting’s also gone downhill – he’s been pretty mediocre in this department for at least 18 months.

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Campbell Watts said | July 1st 2009 @ 2:17pm | Report comment

I’m not a big fan of his captaincy.

Has a tendancy to be rather waspish with the press after a loss and very defensive. You won’t hear Ponting praise the opposition for their skill after an Aussie loss – rather he’ll harp on about aussie failing. This in my eyes is a defense mechanism against admitting someone esle played the better cricket – “they’re not better, we just didn’t play well”

He’s not a natural at the captaincy – look how slow aussies over rates are these days! Ponting takes so long to set his fields because he’s obviously not confident of the course to be taken as the balance of a game shifts.

I look at the likes of Stephen Fleeming as a much better captain – just always seem to make the right decisions at the right times, and got so much out of his less skilled playing squad.

Ponting may be successful but this doen’t necessarily traslate to being a good captain – he’s just got great players around him.

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vinay verma said | July 1st 2009 @ 2:43pm | Report comment

Fisher-Campbell( now that sounds like an upmarket brand of domestic appliances) You both make valid points.

Lets judge Ponting on how he moulds this current team now that he has lost four great players. In Ashes series when an Australian Captain scores the first ton of the series Australia has won 5 of the nine series. Time for Ponting to step up and set the tone.

Australia’s over rates are no worse than say India’s and South Africa’s. In fact India have been fined for slow over rates more often than Australia. However,no argument,he did seem all at sea In the Nagpur Test in India. Allan Border nearly had a seizure at Ponting’s tactics.
The occassions I have heard him at Press Conferences he had been reasonable. The press rarely get the opputunity of a one on one with the players as Cricket Australia have a liason officer and everything is controlled. They sure protect their assets.

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drewster said | July 1st 2009 @ 2:44pm | Report comment

Although i am not an advocate of the way he captains (Too much input from players and indecisive moves under pressure), His score is on the board and as the old saying goes “It doesn’t matter how, It’s how many” and a record of around 75% win / loss ratio (not including draws) is not something that can be dismissed as trivial. History will only show his record as captain which at present is as good as anycaptains in the history of the game.

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Fred Magee said | July 1st 2009 @ 9:55pm | Report comment

While he shouldnt be immune to criticism, I do believe that we probably havent seen the best of Ponting as a captain. It took Allan Border a while to get into the role and discover that he could do it. And yes, it can be said that Ponting had ‘the cattle’ as opposed to Border in the mid-80′s but it is a big step from leading with your performances rather than leading the team period. This includes both the tactical and man-management sides of the coin.

5-0 result in 06/07 was due not only to having the better side but also the discipline and leadership at the top to ensure that the foot wasnt taken off the throat after the Third Test in Perth.

Judgement perhaps should be reserved until after August 24th.

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