When Ricky Ponting announced his retirement yesterday he did so with refreshing candor and honesty.
Can you even imagine any Indian player ever saying the following things about the state of his game?
"It's a decision I thought long and hard about, put in long consideration about the decision, at the end of the day it was about my results and my output in this series so far," Ponting said. "It hasn't been to the level required for batsmen and players in the Australian team. My level of performance hasn't been good enough."
"I want to be a consistent performer, and if you look back over the last 12 or 18 months I haven't been able to perform consistently. I've had moments of really good stuff, and prolonged moments of cricket that's been below my expectations and below a par level for me, so there hasn't been one dismissal or one moment, it's just been in my own eyes reasonably consistent failure. That's why I believe the time is right now to be making this decision."
Wow.
I feel like crying when I read that, not because I will miss Ponting (more on that in a second) but because I have become too used to hearing our folks talk about the 15,000 runs they have scored, the 50+ they average as an opening pair with Sehwag, or hark back to the 400+ wickets they have taken. The first step to dealing with a problem is to admit that there is one. The reason the members of the Indian team continue to flounder is because they insist that all is well and keep repeating the same mistake even as the opposition players have wizened up to their bag of skills.
But I digress. This is about Ponting. For much of the last decade Ponting's was the wicket I most looked forward to being dismissed. Even when he was playing someone other than India. One of my happiest moments ever was when I saw Ponting getting out for 99.
In the prime of his prime, when he was making centuries at a rate bested only by Bradman, I hated the fellow. In the evening of his prime, as he became more expansive with his time and interviews, I came to grudgingly admire him for his honesty and *shock* graciousness in defeat.
Yet, it did not stop me from exulting when Jacques Kallis cleaned him up in the first inning of the recent Adelaide Test. Seeing Ponting on all fours by the time he finished his shuffle brought me joy. Today, I am a little sad that I was so gleeful.
If Imran Khan and Malcolm Marshall are the two bowlers I feared the most as an Indian fan, then Ponting is the batsman to match them in my mind.
However, when the Perth Test starts later today, for the first time in my life, I will be rooting for Ponting to score a century. In fact, I hope he scores two of them. Years ago, I exulted when he came one run short of being the first person to score twin centuries in a Test 4 times. This time I hope he gets to three figures. And beyond.
It took him 15 years to make me change my mind about him. But in the end, he did. Nostalgia does strange things to the best of minds, so what chance did I really have?
Can you even imagine any Indian player ever saying the following things about the state of his game?
"It's a decision I thought long and hard about, put in long consideration about the decision, at the end of the day it was about my results and my output in this series so far," Ponting said. "It hasn't been to the level required for batsmen and players in the Australian team. My level of performance hasn't been good enough."
"I want to be a consistent performer, and if you look back over the last 12 or 18 months I haven't been able to perform consistently. I've had moments of really good stuff, and prolonged moments of cricket that's been below my expectations and below a par level for me, so there hasn't been one dismissal or one moment, it's just been in my own eyes reasonably consistent failure. That's why I believe the time is right now to be making this decision."
Wow.
I feel like crying when I read that, not because I will miss Ponting (more on that in a second) but because I have become too used to hearing our folks talk about the 15,000 runs they have scored, the 50+ they average as an opening pair with Sehwag, or hark back to the 400+ wickets they have taken. The first step to dealing with a problem is to admit that there is one. The reason the members of the Indian team continue to flounder is because they insist that all is well and keep repeating the same mistake even as the opposition players have wizened up to their bag of skills.
But I digress. This is about Ponting. For much of the last decade Ponting's was the wicket I most looked forward to being dismissed. Even when he was playing someone other than India. One of my happiest moments ever was when I saw Ponting getting out for 99.
In the prime of his prime, when he was making centuries at a rate bested only by Bradman, I hated the fellow. In the evening of his prime, as he became more expansive with his time and interviews, I came to grudgingly admire him for his honesty and *shock* graciousness in defeat.
Yet, it did not stop me from exulting when Jacques Kallis cleaned him up in the first inning of the recent Adelaide Test. Seeing Ponting on all fours by the time he finished his shuffle brought me joy. Today, I am a little sad that I was so gleeful.
If Imran Khan and Malcolm Marshall are the two bowlers I feared the most as an Indian fan, then Ponting is the batsman to match them in my mind.
However, when the Perth Test starts later today, for the first time in my life, I will be rooting for Ponting to score a century. In fact, I hope he scores two of them. Years ago, I exulted when he came one run short of being the first person to score twin centuries in a Test 4 times. This time I hope he gets to three figures. And beyond.
 |
| (Getty images, 2012, via CricInfo) |
