[Matt79]

The whole 'batting after 2001 doesn't count' malarky is an interesting one here. I'd have to say that they are very comparable - Lara is probably just ahead, but Ponting can change that if he keeps going in his current vein for another season or two. But in equating Ponting's improvement in the 00s compared to the 90s to it becoming easier to bat in that period is an error in my view. Much like MoYo, Ponting is a player who didn't fulfil his clear potential for a large chunk of his early career, but then reached a point where off-field issues settled down into a pattern that worked for them, and from that time neither has looked back. Ponting is a case where its easy to lose sight of that because it occurred at roughly the same time as batting apparently became so easy that anyone could do it. Its a bit like the way Hayden's improvement in his years in the wilderness gets ignored because 'all the good bowlers' retired in that period.