Australia Cricket: Pointing Towards Punter's Future As a Captain

Ricky “Punter” Ponting ushered in a different mental attitude in the camp when he beat Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne to the pride of Australian cricket, the Test captaincy, after Steve Waugh announced his retirement from Test cricket in 2004.

Having established himself as the leader of the one-day side when he won the 2003 World Cup that included a blistering 140-run captain’s knock against India, the transition to the “real version” of the game must have appeared to be a natural and painless one. The reality of the after-events perhaps established it to Punter that the glory of wearing the Australian Test crown came with its set of thorns as well.

After a forgettable first year as a captain, during which Ponting averaged an uncharacteristic 37, he finished 2004 with a series whitewash against a struggling Pakistan. He finally seemed to have found his footing as a captain and scoring big at the same time while making a double century in the New Year’s test at the SCG.

The local media lauded that Ponting had finally arrived as a captain, and all focus shifted to the Ashes in England. After his impressive performance in the 02-03 Ashes, nothing less than a repeat of fireworks was expected from him, even more so as a captain.

Punter struggled on various fronts during the series, found himself whining about England’s use of substitute fieldsmen, and earned himself some unsavory remarks from Duncan Fletcher.

Despite his gutsy 156 at Old Trafford that helped Australia save the match, Ponting did not fare well with the bat and averaged less than 40 for the entire series. Losing a one-day game against Bangladesh in 2005 did not help Punter’s cause to silence his critics, to whom he was still the brash goatee-sporting batsman from Tasmania. 

Like the phoenix that rose from the Ashes, losing the urn to England in 2005 perhaps triggered a similar phenomenon for Ponting and Australian cricket. Ponting led Australia on a record crusade and sheer world dominance, winning 20 of the 21 Tests they since played. During the process, the Australian team and Ponting overcame “the nightmare of the '05 Ashes” and ruthlessly massacred England in the '07 Ashes with a 5-0 whitewash.

Ponting continued his winning streak even in 2008 when he crossed the 10,000-run mark during the West Indies series, becoming the third Australian to achieve that feat after Border and Waugh. This period also included the retaining of the one day World Cup by Australia in 2007.

Ponting’s Test crusade hit a roadblock in the form of an energized Indian Test team and Punter himself struggled against his old nemesis, Harbhajan Singh, and a young speedster named Ishant Sharma, thereby prompting speculation about Ponting’s captaincy once again. However, he resiliently tried to singlehandedly avoid the home series defeat against South Africa in the 2008-2009 series without much avail.

Michael Clarke has already been given the responsibility in the shorter form of the game for a whole series ('08 series against West Indies), and has shown the promise of being an intelligent leader. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if Pup is put in that role permanently fairly soon in preparation for the 2011 World Cup.

There are several teams that have already started their campaign for the 2011 World cup by bringing in younger captains after the 2007 World cup—India, Pakistan and England (assuming that they sort out this Pietersen row).

From a test captaincy standpoint, the upcoming return series in South Africa and the Ashes will perhaps shed more light on Ponting’s future as the captain of the Australian Test side.

A pragmatic approach would recommend Clarke leading the one-day and T-20 sides leading up to the preparation for the 2011 World Cup and Ponting continuing in his role contingent upon the performance and results of the series in South Africa and the Ashes.

In 2006, umpire Lou Rowan branded Ponting “a smart arse and disaster as a leader,” but he will remain “the smart arse” whose name features alongside the Laras and the Tendulkars as one of the most fascinating batsmen of the modern era.

One would perhaps say that Ponting has had it easy with a set of world class WMGs— Warne, McGrath, and Gilchrist, playing under him, but there is no denying the fact that Ponting’s name appears in reckoning when a discussion/debate about “world’s best batsmen-captain of the modern era” is under way.

One could argue that a different leader could have been easily over shadowed by such star performers in his side and lost his own way. There is no doubt that Ponting’s consistent performances, leadership abilities, winning record along with a few off-field antics will have cricket historians usher his name as one of the world’s best for as long as cricket lives.