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Ricky Ponting Profile And Biography
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Acclaimed by Academy coach Rod Marsh as the best teenage
batsman he had ever seen, Ricky Ponting began with Tasmania
at 17 and Australia at 20, and was given out unluckily for 96
on his Test debut. He was and remains the archetypal modern
cricketer: he plays all the shots with a full flourish of the
bat and knows only to attack, and his breathtaking, dead-eye
fielding is a force in the game by itself. A gambler and a
buccaneer, he is a natural at one-day cricket. He has had his
setbacks, against probing seam attacks and high-class
finger-spin, which, when out of form, he plays with hard
hands. In the 1990s there were off-field indiscretions that
led him once to admit publicly to an alcohol problem, but he
overcame the issues and became part of the heartbeat of one
of Australia's most successful teams. After the retirement of
Ian Healy he took over as the man who led the singing of the
victory song, passing it on when he assumed the captaincy.
 With
many lessons learned, Ponting's growing maturity was
acknowledged by the ACB when he saw off competition from
Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist to succeed Steve Waugh as
Australia's one-day leader early in 2002. It was a seamless
transition: Ponting led the successful 2003 World Cup
campaign from the front, clouting 140 not out in the final,
and acceded to the Test crown when Waugh finally stepped down
early in 2004. A broken thumb suffered in the Champions
Trophy in England forced him to watch Gilchrist lead
Australia's first series victory in India for 35 years from
the dressing room, although he returned for the final Test.
Batting-wise his first year as captain was one to forget, but
he began his second with 207 against Pakistan, joining Don
Bradman and Greg Chappell as the only Australians to reach
four double-centuries. By the time the eagerly-awaited 2005 Ashes series got underway the cracks in an almost invincible Australian side were beginning to appear. A humiliating one-day loss to Bangladesh caused the first ripple of dissent against his leadership style, and it grew as the contest progressed. A heroic 156 helped save the Old Trafford Test, but on September 12, 2005, Ponting became the first Australian captain since Allan Border in 1986-87 to taste defeat in an Ashes series. The result hurt and the pain lingered throughout the next summer, but he regrouped and reglued to start an amazing streak of 16 wins in 17 Tests, culminating in the 5-0 demolition of England to regain the urn in the most emphatic way. Ponting was Man of the Series as Australia became the first team in 86 years to achieve an Ashes cleansweep and his 576 runs at 82.28 confirmed him as the game's modern master. The summer was tarnished slightly when England handed Australia their first tri-series finals loss for 14 years and he missed the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy defeat with a back injury. Each lowlight was quickly forgotten as he ensured a third consecutive World Cup win and his second as an undefeated captain. Waugh believes his successor will hold the game's run-scoring record when he retires. The world's leading strokeplayer, he finished 2005 with 1544 runs and posted twin hundreds three times in five months, joining Sunil Gavaskar as the only other man to achieve the feat, and the double effort in his 100th Test at the SCG was magnificent. He followed up with another 1333 runs in 2006 and owns more centuries than anyone but Sachin Tendulkar. Frighteningly, he is far from finished. |
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