One image of champion batsman Ricky Ponting I vividly remember is his acknowledgment of yet another century at Melbourne against India in 2003. He rushed forward on and on as he completed the single and waved his bat vigorously, delight etched all over his face. It was almost as if even he couldn’t believe what was happening. Lara had always been the enigma, Sachin hadn’t been the same batsman ever since he was first haunted by the back injury, Ponting from almost nowhere was rising further and further and seemed unstoppable. As Sachin Tendulkar turned in a dismal performance at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean Islands – a stage he had previously revelled in – we Indian fans took it for granted that the record of highest Test centuries Sachin had earned would not be his for long, in fact assumed that Ponting would snatch it right in the India-Australia Test series. As a pointer to how much things have changed in a very short time, Tendulkar usurped the no.1 spot in the ODI batsmen rankings with a commanding performance in both finals of the CB series, more importantly sealing a shock victory of India over Australia. Ponting for the record couldn’t muster double-digit scores in either match.
Ricky Ponting had always been marked out as a special talent. He got into the international team surprisingly early and the Australian cricket administration too acknowledged that they had made an exception because he was a potentially exceptional player. And yet – world’s best batsman?? For quite a while, nobody quite thought of him in that light. There was Sachin Tendulkar, there was Brian Lara, there was Saeed Anwar, there was Mark Waugh in Ponting’s team, Ponting didn’t seem to quite belong in that league yet. There were two reasons for this – he looked extremely susceptible against quality spin bowling. And then, his elaborate forward and across stride made him vulnerable to penetrating swing and seam bowling early in his innings.
With the turn of the century, all this seemed to change. Partly responsible for this was Mark Waugh’s fading into sad oblivion after match-fixing allegations and a concurrent slump in form and Steve Waugh’s ouster from ODI captaincy after failing to make the finals of the VB Series in 2002. That the team had collectively failed around him was another matter, which I will come to later. In the meantime, Ponting’s handling of spin bowling improved and the emergence of a formidable – formidable is not the word – opening pair in Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer routinely shielded him from the new ball. To his credit, he put the new ball to sword when called upon, but when a batsman is in the form of his life, the red carpet seems to roll out just like that, doesn’t it? As of now, Ponting’s Test average is still almost 2 runs clear of Sachin Tendulkar, so he can be legitimately called the world’s current best Test batsman, though for how much longer remains to be seen. Another hallmark of Ponting vis-a-vis Lara and Tendulkar was that he seemed to be unfailingly there for the team on the big occasion – the fearful pounding he meted out to India in the 2003 World Cup final comes to mind. That Tendulkar and Lara were overburdened in weaker teams didn’t seem to matter – at that time.
The turning point perhaps was the post-match conference after the Sydney Test early this year. On being asked about a catch he claimed off Dhoni which the camera replays showed to have been grounded, Ponting flared up unreasonably and thundered that if the journalist in question was questioning his integrity, he shouldn’t be standing there. It was ugly and distasteful and though Ponting has steadfastly insisted that given the same circumstances, his actions would have been no different, it is quite possible the events of Sydney haunted him for a while. Anyway, Australia coasted to Perth, expecting to romp over an already battered Indian team. But nothing went according to the chosen script. After India had put the runs on the board, Chris Rogers and Phil Jacques departed in quick succession, leaving Ponting to face the seam bowlers when they were still hungry and lethal. He failed, and Clarke and Hussey departed on either side. By stumps on the third day, Australia were staring down the barrel – 400-odd to chase with both openers already back in the pavilion.
This should have been the ideal situation for Ponting to stamp his authority over the game in his usual style. He – he survived, he struggled and nearly made it to lunch before a rookie seamer snapped him up. More importantly, at no point in his uncomfortable stay did he look close to the dominant batsman he was supposed to be. He was playing and missing, he was pulling when the shot was not on, inswingers jabbed back into his pads or ribs. With his failure, the morale of the team seemed to collapse and Australia lost at a venue which most visiting teams dreaded.
The story continued in the CB series – and now the other Indian seamers and even the Lankan bowlers got into the act. To use a harsh adage, Ponting simply couldn’t get the ball off the square. His century at Sydney looked like a catharsis, but by his own oblique admission, it seems to have been made possible partly by a designer batting strip. When the first final was played at the same venue, he couldn’t repeat his feat, far from it, his contribution with the bat was nothing to speak of. Meanwhile, an old rival had achieved something rarely, if ever, seen in cricket – re-invention. Sachin smashed two big centuries in the Test series and then in the last three games played by India, all three being crunch games, he hit an unbeaten hundred and two big half-centuries. Tendulkar was the first to admit that he wasn’t the same batsman of 17 years ago, but he used his experience and acquired craft to work around his strengths and weaknesses and score vital runs without resorting to diffident plodding. In the final analysis, that may well have been the difference between the two teams – the champion batsman of one team was earning his worth in gold and the other was unable to pull his weight time and again.
The question now is: will Cricket Australia do unto Ponting what they did unto Steve Waugh? There are many differences between the two set of circumstances. Steve Waugh hadn’t failed as a batsman when he was dumped, but he seemed to have failed as a leader and Australia doesn’t believe in saddling former leaders in the team. By contrast, Ponting’s teammates have done well in patches but are missing the spurt of inspiration they need from their leader because he himself seems riddled in self-doubt. On the other hand, when Waugh was dumped, Australia felt a team without Waugh both as captain and batsman was doable. They are probably not so sure they don’t need Ponting the batsman if not the captain.
Since being caught running astray by an Australian newspaper almost a decade ago, Ponting turned a new leaf and curbed his alcohol binges and got hold of himself. Today, having been in contention for the best batsman spot and leading the team to more victories than one can count on both hands, life seems to have come full circle for Ponting. He has failed to pull up and discipline teammates who seemed to liken cricket to Rugby or WWF, in turn he backed them steadfastly to the point of raising an incriminating finger on the opponents much to their consternation, but above all he couldn’t get his bat to wield over all his troubles as would have been his wont in the past. Today, one has to ask: is Ponting still in the race at all? Perhaps, a stint for the IPL on designer featherbeds will help tide over his poor form temporarily. After that……
