Like many weary, ageing Australian cricketers before him, Ricky Ponting has made the tough decision to step down from the test team.
It is no shock that Ponting would choose to end his career this summer, given the intense scrutiny surrounding his place in the team over the past few years.
And despite a mini-resurgence over the past 12 months – which included a double century – the Tasmanian has taken the opportunity to finish “on his own terms.”
I, like a fair proportion of you out there reading this, have grown up watching Ricky Ponting bat for Australia.
I vividly remember the collective outrage when he was dismissed LBW on debut for 96 – a dodgy decision which should never have been given out.
It’s a specific childhood memory that sits up there for me along Princess Diana’s funeral, Stuart Diver’s Thredbo landslide survival, and watching Beavis and Butthead do America at Avoca Cinemas.
I’d say that Ponting pretty much brought back the hook and pull. Those two shots had pretty much disappeared from the repertoires of all Australian cricketers from the late 1970s onwards (although, as a caveat, it is worth noting the dominance of West Indian pace bowlers from the late 70s-early-mid 90s).
But Ponting, despite being brought up on seaming Tasmanian wickets, was born to play with a horizontal bat.
The way he dispatched quality bowlers to the leg-side boundary with balance, poise and venom was a marvel in itself, given his diminutive stature. But all quality batsmen over the years have been diminutive. It could be something about the way they pick up the line of the ball.
But it wasn’t just his hooking and pulling that stood out. He had the full complement of strokes – including the leave – remains possibly one of the best in world cricket to this day. His on-driving – universally acknowledged as ‘the toughest shot in the book’ – was always exquisite.
His hand-eye coordination was – and still is – incredible; you can tell this though not only his stroke-play but his slip fielding.
An accomplished golfer who could probably play off scratch if he wanted to, Ponting was one of the most naturally gifted batsmen to play for Australia since Bradman (but less of a wanker) – and one of the top three international batsman of the modern era, alongside Lara (bit streaky) and Tendulkar (technically proficient, if that’s what you’re into).
At his peak, I’d place Ponting ahead of his two contemporaries.
He had a few controversial moments, it has to be said.
His exploits in Kings Cross at the Bourbon & Beefsteak in January 1999 were the stuff of legend: Punter was allegedly dancing with notorious drag queen Charlotta before getting knocked out by a bouncer in the wee hours of the morning.
This public humiliation, however, spurred him to reignite his career and give up the benders (and his well-documented penchant for gambling, which earned him his sobriquet).
Ponting was forced to grow up quickly, as most professional athletes are. It is difficult to be a loose unit throughout your entire international cricket career; at some point, you’ve got to grow up. Ponting realised this; Andrew Symonds didn’t.
The level of scrutiny on our cricketers is second only to our politicians – and in some cases exceeds that level of scrutiny. It is testament to his inner strength and determination that he was able to overcome his “demons” and ascend to the captaincy.
While his batting has never – until now – been questioned, his captaincy was looked upon less favourably. His decision to bowl first at Edgbaston in 2005 was universally condemned, while some have derided him as overly consultative and lacking a firm hand.
Others, including Ian Chappell, said he lacked the creative nous of a Shane Warne, who was also in the mix for the captaincy upon Steve Waugh’s retirement.
Now at the end of his career, his technical flaws have become more and more apparent. We all know them: he lunges too hard at the ball; he falls over to the offside when playing off his pads, etc. But these deficiencies show up in all cricketers once they’re past their prime. And strengths become weaknesses as they look to their “money shot” too often.
With Ponting, he turned to the hook – and only until recently, has it failed him.
Ponting has over 13,000 test runs to his name at an average of around 52.2. These are excellent statistics and, in a world determined by raw figures where gamblers in suits run the global economy, they’ll hold up strong for years to come.
But cricketers are too often defined by raw figures.
Let’s instead remember Punter for this: his hook shot, his extravagant leave technique, his talent in the slips, that goatee circa 1997, his black eye outside the B&B, his reinvigorated hairline, the on-field kisses blown to his wife, his manic mannerisms, those grating Swisse multivitamins ads, and his overall value to the team over 17 years.
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