Ponting given the old Freo (heave ho).

Doodlesweaver

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Going way back to the comparison of Ponting's renaissance with that of Tendulkar, I would say that a comparison to Dravid is much more accurate, and a cautionary tale too. Rahul had his struggles a few years back aged 37 or so, but pushed through and eventually dominated England last winter despite the Indians being thrashed. Amazing effort, no doubt, but his subsequent tour of Australia showed him up as too old, well past it, and a drag on the team in the crucial position of #3. His technical problems (back foot moving away, continually bowled) were huge and made him a shadow of his former self.
Without wanting to take away from the great man's legacy, surely India would have been better served with Kohli at #3 and Sharma or someone at #6. Of course no-one would have wanted to pull the plug on Rahul after his amazing performances in England (and those that followed at home against WI), but it just goes to show that you can only mask the march of time for a while before it returns with a vengance.
I worry that Ponting might suffer the same fate - probably not against the Windies but South Africa would be a concern. He has conquered his issues with falling across the line for now, but in time they will inevitably return, likely against a better bowling attack than what India produced.
I hope for his sake, and the team's, that he hangs up the boots before it's too late.
Good post. It is inevitable that Punter will fall away again probably sooner rather than later, though you can understand why he would think that he's still able to dominate as he used to. He doesn't want to stop playing so he's bound to convince himself of that.

It was telling - if surprising - that the selectors dropped him from the ODI squad as soon as he entered another phase of problems. I suspect he's on a fairly short rope now which has shown the selectors in a completely different light to me. He's had too long a period of poor form previous to the Indian series to be able to enter another and just get away with sitting there in the test team like a decoy duck.
 

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Gak Attack

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He has every right though to stay in the team until removed. He still obviously loves playing and anyone who has loved playing sport will know that while your body can and while you still love it you want to play at the highest level you can. He has taken his ODI axing well, no whinging and has said when interviewed since he saw it coming and has no complaints. I fail to see how fans and more noticeably some muppets in the media.. even past players can call him selfish for playing on. Get a young bloke in they say.. what young blokes have proven themselves worthy of late? very few. As I mentioned earlier, the so called crap Indian attack proved too much for the younger members of the team in Cowan, Marsh and Warner. Others may say it will tarnish his career to the views of others if he plays at a lesser level than he once did, maybe he doesn't care if that level is still in the best 6 batsman we have?

Now I am all for dropping guys if they are not performing and if Punter had been axed after the South African series I don't think he could of had too many complaints but his summer was 2nd to only Clarke as a batsman in my opinion. That being said, what happened to earning your call up? How many good years back to back did guys like Hayden, Lehman, Hussey etc. have to put in before being given a chance? Guys like Jamie Cox would be wishing they were playing during this time where one good year was enough to have people saying they should drop the oldies for you.
 

R00StaR

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Top post GA, i completely agree. I dont see anything wrong with allowing the selectors to do their job. When dropped he accepted that and plays on. Its the selectors job to manage the succession planning and select the team not Ponting.

Punter is serving his country to the best he can, he is offering his services until told they are no longer required. It would be great if more players did the same. Of course some their bodies just wont allow it, or mentally they just cant. Hopefully selectors are kept in the loop on those ones for planning purposes.

Some want to avoid the indignity of being dropped, here we have a great who isnt afraid, who is happy to serve his country the best he can while they need/ want him.
 

King Elvis

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On a bit of a side note; does anybody think it'd be in Cricket Australia's interest to come up with some kind of system to encourage ex-Test Stars to play a year or two in the domestic comp?

The thought of Punter retiring and playing a year ot two for Tasmania would be fantastic, for him, for the League, for the public.
 

Happy Mastenator

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On a bit of a side note; does anybody think it'd be in Cricket Australia's interest to come up with some kind of system to encourage ex-Test Stars to play a year or two in the domestic comp?

The thought of Punter retiring and playing a year ot two for Tasmania would be fantastic, for him, for the League, for the public.
Would need good coin, and with a thousand people turning up to shield games it's just not viable, especially since immediately after finishing your international career is probably the best time to leverage that into a post cricket job that gets good coin.
 

Belnakor

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depends what your plan is - if your going to go down the coaching or selection route then playing a year in shield is worth your while.

If your going to try it in business or else where then you need to strike while the iron is hot.

having said that Punter will be famous enough to do endorsements for the next 20 years.
 

The Convert

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Ricky has been one of great no 3 batsman in cricket. It is fine to say he has dominated in the games against I ndia where the top 3 have failed but the reality is he was deemed not to be good enough to stay at No 3. Who is to say if he batted at 3 and one of the others batted at four the results would not have been altogether different.

I have loved him for a long time but his time is I am afraid very near if not already reached. He will need to succedd in domestic cricket or the plane ticket may not come throught he mail. It will be sad but as for all sports people time moves on and father time has a habit of lashing out and smashing those who are not at their most observant. I would rather he be dropped than to go out on a series of failures.
 

The Passenger

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Now I am all for dropping guys if they are not performing and if Punter had been axed after the South African series I don't think he could of had too many complaints but his summer was 2nd to only Clarke as a batsman in my opinion. That being said, what happened to earning your call up? How many good years back to back did guys like Hayden, Lehman, Hussey etc. have to put in before being given a chance? Guys like Jamie Cox would be wishing they were playing during this time where one good year was enough to have people saying they should drop the oldies for you.
it would have been very interesting to see what the selectors did if there was a geunine push from below ponting to grab his spot (and husseys this time last year)...

the fact is there really hasn't been from the batsmen.

On a bit of a side note; does anybody think it'd be in Cricket Australia's interest to come up with some kind of system to encourage ex-Test Stars to play a year or two in the domestic comp?

The thought of Punter retiring and playing a year ot two for Tasmania would be fantastic, for him, for the League, for the public.
absolutely. one of the great strenghts of our cricket in the past was that test players would regularly play shield cricket, and often play grade cricket. that is a great way to develop young cricketers and fringe state or fringe national cricketers.

alan border played 108 shield matches. ian chappel 89, greg chappel 101...

due to time constraints ponting has only played 53, clarke has only played 37, mitchell johnson 20, and what chances of dave warner making it to 50??

i don't know what you can do though, it's really gotta come as inspiration from the players themselves.

say what you want about stuart clark, stuart macgill, greg matthews (clark wouldn't have many detractors, but the others do) but they have all played grade cricket well beyond their test careers with clark and macgill as recently as yesterday.

that can only be a good thing for cricket imo.

for what it's worth i reckon michael clarke will play on for a bit at wests (maybe not NSW) once his career is done... i would be suprised if ponting does. i reckon m hussey will continue to play for WA and grade.
 

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Doodlesweaver

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I see it the opposite; having Punter around would be invaluable for the development of the young guys.
Problem for Punter is that he lives in Sydney and has two small kids. The big bonus of him playing less international cricket on a personal level would be for his family so playing state cricket would be kind of complicated. It would be really good for the state competitions though.

I suppose he could move to NSW...
 

The Passenger

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I see it the opposite; having Punter around would be invaluable for the development of the young guys.
i agree. the development it gives players who now have the opportunity to bowl to or face up to test quality cricketers, far outweights that you deny a younger player the opportunity to play in that game.

if that younger player who didn't get the chance is good enough, he'll get a chance further down the track.

Problem for Punter is that he lives in Sydney and has two small kids. The big bonus of him playing less international cricket on a personal level would be for his family so playing state cricket would be kind of complicated. It would be really good for the state competitions though.

I suppose he could move to NSW...
If ponting played state cricket beyond playing for australia i imagine it would be for NSW. big ask to up stumps and move back to tasmania to play shield cricket.

i don't think ponting would play on in state cricket. he might play a bit of grade cricket. hopefully he would.
 
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Ricky has been one of great no 3 batsman in cricket. It is fine to say he has dominated in the games against I ndia where the top 3 have failed but the reality is he was deemed not to be good enough to stay at No 3. Who is to say if he batted at 3 and one of the others batted at four the results would not have been altogether different.


I guess you're right in a sense. After 100+ tests at first drop, Ponting slid back to four because "he was deemed not to be good enough to stay at
No. 3."

It's a fair point but its got me wondering about that little bloke who bats at four for India. He's never batted at 3 in a test match. Not once......ever. Perhaps he was deemed not to be good enough.

It takes me back to a thread from about 5 years ago when I argued that we wouldn't realise how good Ponting was until he was no longer around. Great first drops don't grow on trees. It's a tough job and how tough is underlined by the number of great batsmen who'd rather bat at four (Tendulkar, Kallis, Greg Chappell - it's a long list) or lower still at five or six (Steve Waugh, Michael Clarke).
 
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