Ricky Ponting : Beginning of the End?

[JBH001]

I voted no. Its too soon to tell, really. I think he will score big in England - I cant see the likely English attack causing him too many problems.

 

[sammy2]

ponting ? im not sure he will be remembered.

 

[bagapath]

with greats like ponting it is impossible to tell when they will come roaring back to form. also he is not looking very different from how he was three years ago. might be a temporary dry phase. so i would expect him to get back to his best very soon and score tons of runs all around the globe (and continue to suck in India).

 

[Trumpers_Ghost]

ponting ? im not sure he will be remembered.

Maybe not in Canada, but then again not too many Australians can remember a hack like Wayne Gretsky either!

 

[Trumpers_Ghost]

I think I'm in the camp of "has declined with age but is easily still of World Class".

I'm about the same age and I can assure you that strength, speed (especially), endurance and reflexes are not what they were just a couple of years ago. It kinda hits quick

Damn it, I'm an old man now. Fetch my slippers woman!

 

[Jono]

Ponting has scored 10310 runs against non-minnows, a mere 805 behind Sachin (who has 11115 in 27 more innings). Sachin will definitely retire before Ponting, who will have roughly 27 innings to catch up on roughly 805 runs, assuming they both play equally well from hereon to Sachin's retirement. He needs to average about 30 runs per inning thereon to achieve that target. Barring a serious injury or drop in form, there's every reason to believe he'll do it comfortably.

Also interesting to note is the fact that Sachin has 36 centuries as opposed to Ponting's 35 - again in 27 more innings.

And really, who cares about runs against Zim and Bang?

Considering how wrong you are lately, I'd be willing to wager on the opposite of everything you post.

In all seriousness though, you could be right. I just feel Sachin will play till 2011. Ponting may not play too longer after his captaincy stint ends, its not the Australian way to do what Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar have done, and play on after losing/giving up captaincy.

 

[SJS]

Cant say.

 

[Athlai]

Will see his average drop down to low 50's.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I'll hold my breath, until he gets to take charge of a reasonably settled side. The number of players that he's gone through, and the uncertain times, has to have taken a toll at some point. Personally, if they can keep 14 players in and around the squad for a while, rather than playing about 25 blokes in 18 months, then I think it'll take a lot of the pressure off Ponting, and let him just worry about batting a bit more.

 

[TT Boy]

5 tests coming up against a current pop-gun attack and 6 proposed test matches against Pakistan (who only have one good test bowler), I can't see Punter missing out there.

 

[Top_Cat]

I'll hold my breath, until he gets to take charge of a reasonably settled side. The number of players that he's gone through, and the uncertain times, has to have taken a toll at some point. Personally, if they can keep 14 players in and around the squad for a while, rather than playing about 25 blokes in 18 months, then I think it'll take a lot of the pressure off Ponting, and let him just worry about batting a bit more.

Personally, it won't be a matter of form/ability. One wonders what challenges he has to set himself. I dunno if beating Sachin will be enough by itself to keep him in the game. I mean, he was the captain of a losing series and the Aussie schtonkered them on the return series. Lost at home to SA then beat them in the return series. He's got multiple world cup wins, multiple Ashes wins, a win against India in India (even if he only played one Test), was a key member of one of Australia's greatest ever sides, etc. The only thing he's yet to do is play in a winning side with Tassie and I bet the first season he gives it a shot, they'll win their second Shield.

Reckon once this side settles itself, he might look at giving it away to play IPL while he's still playing well and can earn series $$'s.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Waiting on the Ashes to decide about Ponting.

He hasn't been dominating, but then again he's had lean patches in the past as well. He's still played some good innings lately, and it's worth remembering he's been out between 79 and 99 four times this summer. 79 against NZ, then the 99 in Melbourne and two scores in the 80s in the recent tour. If he'd made five centuries in his last seven tests, I doubt people would be considering him out of touch.

Obviously you can say that about a lot of things, just worth remembering his run hasn't been that poor, and he's face some difficult circumstances being in charge in India and then six tests against SA.

 

[Jono]

Obviously you can say that about a lot of things, just worth remembering his run hasn't been that poor, and he's face some difficult circumstances being in charge in India and then six tests against SA.

That's why I believe its not that he's simply 'past it', but rather the pressures of the game, and the time he's been involved, is slowly but surely having an effect. He's not in a Hussey or Dravid trough, but rather there are signs that he may not be the force he was. I believe this will continue (though there's no guarantee at all obviously).

That being said, he's played his 10 of his last 12 tests vs. South Africa and India, who are obviously fairly good teams.

 

[sammy2]

Maybe not in Canada, but then again not too many Australians can remember a hack like Wayne Gretsky either!

He has never been rated above lara and sachin. So in the future he will be in their shadow aswell.

 

[bagapath]

He has never been rated above lara and sachin. So in the future he will be in their shadow aswell.

i have no doubt about that. without getting into the merits of such a legacy, i would compare ponting's standing in history with miandad's. despite playing monumental knocks and achieving a high degree of success against all opponents in a long career javed, in comparison with richards or, to a lesser degree, gavaskar, is not the most remembered, admired and written about batsman from the 70s and 80s.

my guess is ponting will be treated a little better than him and would be clubbed by the future generations with g.chappell - a batsman of rare talent and stupendous achievements like ponting, but ranked below slightly more admired contemporaries. the difference between a miandad and a g.chappell is while the former's position below those more famous contemporaries is accepted without much debate (though I dont know why) g.chappell is considered by a lot, but not the majority, to be the best batsman of his generation. ricky, i think, will be sharing that platform with him whereas sachin and lara would always be known as the era defining batsmen in the eyes of the majority.

looking for a getaway before chappell fans attack me for ranking him with the much less stylish ponting......

 

[Evermind]

The Ponting-hate on this board is pretty amazing. Comparing him to Miandad?! Who next, Sehwag? Maybe someone here thinks Samaraweera > Ponting?

A person unfamiliar with cricket would think this Ponting guy averages like 50.5 with 27 centuries. Run-wise, he's the most successful cricketer of the modern era, and it surely must count for something?

 

[Jono]

I think you missed/misinterpreted the comparison, not that I necessarily agree or disagree with it.

 

[bagapath]

The Ponting-hate on this board is pretty amazing. Comparing him to Miandad?! Who next, Sehwag? Maybe someone here thinks Samaraweera > Ponting?

A person unfamiliar with cricket would think this Ponting guy averages like 50.5 with 27 centuries. Run-wise, he's the most successful cricketer of the modern era, and it surely must count for something?

post g.chappell's retirement in '83 miandad was the most successful batsman in the world for a decade. his avg never dropped below 50 in his entire career right from his first innings in 76 till he retired sometime in 90s. miandad averaged more than richards and gavaskar and border and waugh. and he is definitely one of the greatest batsmen of all time. if you read my post again i am saying ponting will be rated better than him, which is the biggest compliment i can think of. i am even conceding ponting could be compared with g.chappell himself in future. if you call this "ponting bashing" then i dont know what else to say. but please dont expect me to rate him above lara and sachin. even if i do just to please you, the majority (and history) is unlikely to do so. that is my prediction.

 

[SJS]

For a period of nearly 7 years (15th Aug 2001 to 25th May 2008) Ponting, in as many as 72 Test matches (20 more than Bradman's career tally) scored 7387 runs (again more than Bradman's career tally) at 0.3 of a run under 70 per innings and yet, because he has scored, in just 14 Tests, his runs at half a run under 40, we think its the beginning of the end.

This beats India's electronic news media's cricketing logic and trust me those guys take some beating.

 

[bagapath]

For a period of nearly 7 years (15th Aug 2001 to 25th May 2008) Ponting, in as many as 72 Test matches (20 more than Bradman's career tally) scored 7387 runs (again more than Bradman's career tally) at 0.3 of a run under 70 per innings and yet, because he has scored, in just 14 Tests, his runs at half a run under 40, we think its the beginning of the end.

This beats India's electronic news media's cricketing logic and trust me those guys take some beating.

i have voted "no" to this question of whether he is on a decline. you cant expect greats, all-time greats, to go down that easily. ponting is an all-time great and a real heavy weight among legendary batsmen of all-time.

my point in the earlier posts was that history is likely to remember lara and sachin more fondly than him. i am saying this because if he is not rated unanimously as the best of the era already then it is unlikely to happen from here on. whether sachin and ricky increase their average by 10 runs or lose it by 10 runs doesnt make any difference any more. their status in the annals of cricket history is already decided.