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How many times have you heard “cricket is at the crossroads?” Every season, I suspect. We all have our ideals and belief systems. We all expect our sporting teams to play fairly. We also always expect them to win. Cricket, like few other sports, challenges our notions of sportsmanship.
“It’s not cricket” is used both disparagingly and as a reminder that values have changed.
A man is remembered by his deeds more than his words. And nowhere are deeds more scrutinized than on our playing fields.
We remember and rightly eulogise Frank Worrell and Richie Benaud. They gave Test cricket a vitality and relevance that was timely and endures to this day.
In an era where the stiff upper lip was still overly starched and Apartheid well entrenched, the embrace of Benaud and Worrell was before its time and two years before Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”.
Australia is playing Pakistan at Headingley and the fans in Australia are asking questions: Is Ponting the right captain? Is he worth his place in the side as a batsman? And some have unkindly labeled Clarke as “metro”.
These are dangerous perceptions and founded more on innuendo and not a little envy.
When did driving an Aston Martin affect a cover drive? And the Bingle is no one’s business except Clarke’s.
He displayed class by leaving the team and personally telling Lara it was over. He could have taken the easy way out and sent a text message. On top of that, he showed he can separate the personal from the professional and scored a ton in New Zealand.
For mine, he has enough steel.
I think Katich would make an excellent captain, but not because Clarke drives a fancy motor car. But this is all speculation because as long as Ponting is playing for Australia, there will not be another captain.
And Ponting will not be relinquishing his place at number 3. He would sooner give up playing cricket.
The number 3 and the hook shot are the two things that define the man. Greg Chappell, the only one that Ponting has difficulty in replacing as the best since Bradman, left on his terms and retired as captain and scored a ton.
I cannot see Ponting doing anything less.
I would like someone to show me a better captain than Ponting in the current scenario. The debate about him losing two Ashes series in England is passé. Three World Cups and two of them as Captain.
More Test wins than anyone, including Steve Waugh.
If Ricky Ponting was Indian, three drops of his blood would be worth a million dollars. This is what Tendulkar’s drops are worth. Publishers of the Tendulkar Opus have mixed three drops of Tendulkar’s blood with the paper for the tome and lined 10 limited edition copies with gold dust.
The cost of each copy $100,000!
More open to debate is the opening spot and the bowling stocks. For all his undoubted talent Johnson is testing my patience. He needs to start delivering consistently. Not every third match.
And we can no longer blame his mother!
Bollinger is whole-hearted, but currently is not Test standard. He has had a good run in the shorter form and performed well against the Windies in the Tests. But there is a sameness to his bowling.
Hilfenhaus continues to be solid and will improve so he has one spot sewn up.
Will Harris, Siddle and Lee press for inclusion in the Test side? They all still have a CA contract, so cannot be discounted. When the Test men are away in India, the Sheffield Shield will become a field of dreams for young bowlers like Pattinson, Hastings and Cockley.
There is also young Hazelwood and Mitchell Marsh. Yet unproven, but they can dream.
Does Haddin walk straight back in? Paine has kept well and shows promise as a batter. I think Haddin has the runs on the board. All Paine has to do now is score a ton in the second innings.
Watson at the top has one century in this position. He must show he can convert starts into big scores. I am not getting carried away by his bowling.
He is being picked as an opening batsman and the bowling is a bonus.
North is the man most vulnerable. He is playing for his spot in the second innings and cannot afford to fail. Khawaja and Hughes are breathing down his neck.
Cricketers coming together in the great teams are in a de-facto relationship. This relationship is one based on implicit trust. It works outside conventional rules and regulations. It is personal and constantly reaffirmed in principle and practice.
The not so great sides work more like a marriage. Their trust is explicit and codified by vows taken in reverential tones and often, sadly, broken with routine impunity.
Mike Coward states: “The role of Australian cricket captain, once considered the most prestigious and influential office in Australian sport, has already been diluted. It would be diminished, perhaps irrevocably, if three captains were to serve concurrently. A playing roster is unpalatable enough. But a captaincy roster!”
Ponting may well relinquish the ODI captaincy after the 2011 World Cup in India. If Cameron White is appointed T20 captain and Clarke the 50 over captain then Mike Coward’s prophecy may well come to pass.
Only a handful plays all three forms and it is not easy to have a common platform when these players get together for Test matches.
Ponting has young charges in Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Khawaja and Smith and is keen to be part of their development. Hussey, Clarke, Watson and Katich are his seasoned lieutanants.He has called for the seniors to step up.
This is the team Ricky currently has and I doubt he will be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
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