New Zealand will enter next week’s first cricket Test in Brisbane as Kiwis, but also sacrificial lambs. The world’s seventh-ranked nation will almost certainly be beaten by an Australian team and captain stung by criticism and seeking redemption after defeat to India.
That was the case three years ago, when Australia’s response to losing the Ashes to England was to crush every opponent they faced for the next two years.
But during the period which Australia won 16 successive Tests, from October 2005 to January 2008, Ricky Ponting had Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist to call on, and there was daylight between his side and the rest.
Now he enters a pivotal stage of his career, with an ever-changing team entering a new era, with the challengers close.
Ponting will enter the Gabba Test motivated to prove his critics wrong, and if the opportunity arises, to go for the jugular.
It was that inability last weekend in Nagpur which prompted a remarkable outpouring of condemnation towards the Australian skipper.
Ponting’s decision to use part-time bowlers to speed up a tardy over-rate during the final Test, instead of using his front-liners when his side had the ascendancy, has been described as one of the most bewildering in the sport’s history in this country.
Speeding up play meant he avoided suspension, but in a match Australia had to win to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, it also let India off the hook.
His critics have not been so forgiving.
Ian Chappell labelled day four the most bizarre he had seen in cricket and Allan Border was incredulous as he watched events unfold from the commentary box.
Steve Waugh said his successor would regret the move, while Shane Warne said Ponting had got it wrong by not going with his attacking instinct.
Even Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland sought an explanation, but was satisified with the skipper’s reasoning.
Ten months earlier, Ponting found himself under fire because his side was thought to pursue a win-at-all-costs attitude.
Victory at the SCG in a Test featuring disputed catches, racial abuse claims, over-zealous appealing and questionable umpiring decisions was followed by an accusation from India that Australia did not play in the right spirit.
The fall-out provided the most testing time of Ponting’s leadership.
Citing the two matches, he might consider himself in no-man’s land, but the events of Nagpur proved that namby-pamby cricket does not wash in a country that likes winning.
Former Australian coach John Buchanan, who oversaw the national side when Ponting assumed the Test captaincy in 2004, said the criticism was unjustified, and underlined the immaturity of reaction that accompanies a defeat.
(Australia’s series defeat in India was just their third this millennium, and Ponting’s winning strike-rate makes him one of Test cricket’s most successful leaders.)
“It does neither Ricky, the team, cricket any good to have people criticise as vehemently and as ignorantly as they have done,” said Buchanan, who said Ponting’s contentious decision was part of a the greater issue of poor over-rates.
“… It’s symptomatic of an immaturity in Australian society.
“We love our sporting heroes and place them on a pedestal. But we expect so much of them, when they don’t deliver … it’s perceived that Ricky Ponting’s made a poor decision.
“That’s a sad state of Australian society.
“There’s nothing wrong with critiquing, but the criticism that’s been levelled is different. It’s based on little information, no research, and I’d expect more from people who supposedly are experts in the game.”
Buchanan expected Ponting to be stung by the criticism, but to use it as fresh incentive.
“He’s been called selfish, been called a poor leader and there’s been silly things where papers are running internet polls on whether he should be retained as captain,” he said.
“He’s going to feel that definitely, but he’ll spend some time at home with his wife and new baby and try to distance himself from cricket.
“Then when he returns, he’ll be very clear on what’s required and what needs to be done.
“I know he will be driven by some of these criticisms that would have really hurt and stung him.”
During the 2005 Ashes, Ponting was pilloried, particularly in contrast to the Midas-like Michael Vaughan.
In the second Test at Edgbaston, he infamously sent England in after losing McGrath to injury. England scored 407 on day one and won the match by two runs.
In the third and fourth Tests, he was condemned for letting the game drift at key moments and setting defensive fields.
Back then, Chappell, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee were vocal in opposition, and former England skipper Mike Brearley – one of the greats – said Warne would have been more inspiring and creative in charge.
His detractors argue his captaincy-by-consensus – long chats with bowlers, pow-wows with senior teammates – exudes a lack of conviction, but his supporters argue that epitomises modern leadership practice.
With tough series against South Africa (home and away) and another Ashes tour in the next year, Australia will learn exactly where Ponting stands as a leader, especially as his side has been described as one in decline.
Ponting has responded once, and Buchanan expects him to rise again.
“He’s a person who’s always learning,” he said.
“He sits and learns and he listens and that’s how he gains information.
“He’s still doing that and he’s one that I definitely want to be around for a little bit longer yet as captain of Australia.”
Test cricket’s most successful captains (minimum 25 matches in charge):
Steve Waugh (AUST) 1999-2004, 57 matches, 41 wins, 9 losses, 7 draws, winning percentage 71.92, losing percentage 15.78
Ricky Ponting (AUST) 2004-08, 48 matches, 33 wins, 6 losses, 9 draws, winning percentage 68.75, losing percentage 12.50
Mike Brearley (ENG) 1977-81, 31 matches, 18 wins, 4 losses, 9 draws, winning percentage 58.06, losing percentage 12.90
Bill Woodfull (AUST) 1930-34, 25 matches, 14 wins, 7 losses, 4 draws, winning percentage 56, losing percentage 28
Viv Richards (WI) 1980-91, 50 matches, 27 wins, 8 losses, 15 draws, winning percentage 54, losing percentage 16
Shaun Pollock (RSA) 2000-03, 26 matches, 14 wins, 5 losses, 7 draws, winning percentage, losing percentage 19.23
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