Ricky Ponting steps down as Australia captain
SYDNEY: Ricky Ponting, the most successful captain in 134 years of Test cricket, resigned as the Australian Test and one-day skipper on Tuesday but will continue as a batsman with the team.
Factbox: Ponting retires as captain
The 36-year-old, who has led Australia in one-day internationals since 2002 and Tests since 2004, has been under increasing pressure after an Ashes defeat to England and a quarterfinal exit as defending champions at the World Cup.
“Today I’ve decided to stand down as captain of the Test team and the one-day team as of now,” he told a news conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
“The main reason for me is I think it’s the right time … I wanted to make sure that I gave the next captain every opportunity I possibly could to make sure he has as much experience going forward in the next couple of big events that we will play.”
“I will continue to play and am available for both the one-day and Test teams,” he said earlier in a statement.
While Ponting’s batting record brooks no argument, his captaincy has often been criticised as Australia has declined as a force in world cricket, with three Ashes series defeats to England in particular damaging his reputation.
Australia went to the World Cup as double defending champions but returned home after defeat to India in the last eight, their unbeaten run of matches in the tournament having been ended at 34 by Pakistan in the group stage.
On his return to Australia at the weekend, Ponting acknowledged the pressure on him and said he would consider his position before the squad to tour Bangladesh was announced on Wednesday.
Ponting bucked a poor run of form to hit a defiant century in the quarterfinal defeat to India in Ahmedabad, which will only have increased his determination to continue playing international cricket.
Michael Clarke, who stood in for the injured Ponting in the final Ashes Test and for the one-day series against England that followed it, is expected to replace his mentor as skipper.
Australia will play three one-dayers in Bangladesh next month with trips to Sri Lanka and South Africa scheduled for later in the southern hemisphere winter.
Source: Reuters / Times of India
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Ricky is just another low life thug in the Aussie team who believes that thuggery (and swearing and being rude on opposition) on the field is part of the cricket game. They destroyed the “gentlemen’s game”. They do anything for a win and may be next time they can secretely bring guns to the ground and kill the opposition in order to secure a win.
Dear Manjula,
I regret your comments. All your Sri Lankan complexes are demonstrated by the thought of guns in the field and elimination of opposition of any sort, with the use of force. Well, that’s what we appear to know and live, thanks to the terrorist Tamils of our land. Where has the proverbial buddhist compassion gone?
Ricky Ponting is a great cricketer. His achievements as a batsman and a captain are high up on the performance scale.
Are you suggesting SL cricketers abstain from sledging in the field? They do so in raw sinhala filth which none in the World except Sri Lankans can understand!
If we are to achieve purity as a state, I encourage all to join me in my campaign to relocate all SL tamils to the place where they came from in the darkness of the night, across the ocean in paddle boats.
Dear Guru,
Your inability to understand the sarcasm in its context is also regretable. Have I ever suggested to bring guns? No, instead I sarcastically said, since Australians will do anything filthy for a win, they may be able to think of even killing the opposition for a win. It is all about being sarcastic in the way Aussies try to win. You own complexes in linking it to tamil terrorism is beyond my comprehension.
May be you were the only one who had heard Sri Lankan players talking “raw sinhala filth” in the ground since the powerful micraphones around the ground and the micraphone in the stupms were unable to pick anything other than “machang” etc which are not filth. They don’t even say “Ado” and I wonder what motive you have to insult our great players like that. Pure filth to me is something equivalent to “F” word in english (starting with “H”), and I challenge you to prove any such language by Sri Lankans in the field.
Ricky ponting may be a great cricketer but not a gentleman and a sportsman the way he behaves in the field.
Your unrelated complexes in fear of tamils in Sri Lanka is also regretable and with people like you with racism in the helm of the brain, we will never be able to live in harmony in our beautiful country. It’s a shame on the parents of those who spread racism and hatred in the society.
Purity in state is not achieved by seperating or relocating tamils. Instead the purification must be in the mind of the people in the state. After all if you try to achieve purity in state by off-loading all tamils, you are not much different to Prabakaran; just sitting in the other side of the coin though.
Now you tell me , where is the proverbial buddhist compassion which you were trying to preach here has gone?