Skipper Ponting Cops the Flak: His Captaincy in India Under Review
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 : Legends, Tests
To the Australian press and Cricket Australia chief executive, James Sutherland, don't be too hard on skipper Ricky Ponting following Australia's series defeat in India. OK he made mistakes and some of his decisions didn't work, but that happens in hardly fought Test cricket. Should we be slightly more sympathetic?
Mitigating facts
- With due respect to Justin Langer and Damien Martyn, the loss of Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath have changed a truly great team into one that is now vying to be the world's No1 team. The Aussies were also missing Andrew Symonds.
- Any captain is only as good as his bowlers. For various reasons Brett Lee went missing in action and Australia's spin threat wasn't able to take wickets through controlling India's scoring rate.
- Playing in India is a tough gig. All Australian teams have struggled to win there. Their 2004-5 series win was the first since 1969. This Indian team have a number of players who are still near the peak of their careers.
- Dammed if you do, damned if you don't. Some credit should be given to the Australian team for trying to address the over-rate issue although having plans to try and avoid in the first place would have been better.
- Captaincy is difficult. No captain gets it right all of the time, even Steve Waugh. Sometimes 50/50 calls don't go your way.
Going for Clarke now
What if Ricky Ponting lost the captaincy to Michael Clarke? How would that affect him? This is after all Australia's best batsman since Don Bradman. He may well go on to be the highest run scorer and maker of Test hundreds of all time... treat him gently.
Ian Chappell, a man who knows about cricket captaincy, said Ponting is a better captain than Steve Waugh.
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