Some time around the summer of ‘94, the year 12 physics class of an un-named Toowoomba high school was in earnest discussion about who should be the next batsman into the Australian test cricket team.
For reasons best known to his 17-year-old self, the author was adamant Michael Di Venuto was the answer. Everyone else’s money was on his fellow Apple islander Ricky Ponting being the man.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I also failed physics.
To my credit though, I stuck to my anti-Ponting guns, spending much of the second half of the ‘90s arguing that Darren Lehmann should have Ricky’s place at first drop, but eventually I came to my senses.
Then on Monday 3 December, nearly 18 years since a bunch of kids who could barely roll the arm over were discussing his future, Ricky Ponting as a fixture of the Australian summer became a thing of the past.
And just as Ricky himself said that he realised all of his old mates had left the dressing room when Brett Lee finally hung up the hair bleach and Bollywood dance moves, Punter’s retirement ends an era for a whole generation of mid-30s cricket fans.
He’s not just the last remnant of that golden run of ’95-’05 (give or take Huss and Clarkey), but the last player a person of my vintage could call a ‘peer’ if we were having a beer down at the pub.
As a young kid, the likes of Allan Border, Craig McDermott and Steve Waugh didn’t seem like people – they were more like untouchable gods. Ponting, Matt Hayden and co felt more relatable, as the trials and tribulations of their cricketing lives mirrored our own personal struggles out in the real world.
Now all that’s left is Mr Cricket and a bunch of guys a hell of a lot younger than me, who I’ll only ever admire rather than look up to or even, one day, hope to emulate.
The same thing has been happening over in rugby league world for a few years now, as players I’d faced up to in junior reps slowly started to drift out of the NRL.
When the great Darren Lockyer, who I’m pretty sure I played twice when he was playing Under 11s for Roma (for two 0-0 draws – true story!), called it a day, the last connection to my distant playing days was gone.
Now, when the Australian cricket team or the Queensland Maroons or the Canberra Raiders are running onto the field, I’m cheering on a team who I’ve been supporting since before most of their players were born.
They’re no longer ‘heroes’ as such, but just blokes repping the team colours I’ve grown up loving.
So thanks, Punter, for again reminding me that I’m growing up/old. We’ll always have that night in ’06 when you belted South Africa all around the Wanderers ground in that One-Dayer and we still lost.
And I’ll always have that C-minus in Year 12 Physics.
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