Ace performer-Ricky Ponting

Ipsita Baishya Australian Test and One-day captain, frequently ranked by the ICC as the world’s leading batsman in Test cricket, Ricky Ponting in his remarkable cricketing career has always been a force to reckon with. At the age of 32 today he has achieved many milestones.Ponting is the reigning ICC Test Player of the Year and ICC Player of the Year, and Allan Border Medal winner (for the most outstanding Australian cricketer of the past season). He is the only player to have won this medal twice. At the 2006 ICC Awards he was named in the World Team of the Year for both Tests and ODIs. Ponting has captained Australia 130 times in ODIs for 99 wins and two ties and is expected to lead the team in the 2007 World Cup. Early years Ricky Thomas Ponting (born December 19, 1974, in Launceston, Tasmania) was a precocious talent and attracted attention right from the start. He left school early on to attend the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide. After impressing head coach Rod Marsh, Ponting debuted for his state at the age of 17 in the 1992/93 season, and his first-class career has described a steady upward curve since that point. He was immediately productive, scoring an average of 5/48,averaging 48 for the season. He was the youngest Tasmanian to score a first-class century, and the youngest to score centuries in each innings of a match on Australian soil. International career Ponting reached international standards at a young age for a batsman and his domestic performances were rewarded when he was selected for the Australian ODI team to play in a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand in early 1995. He made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in December 1995 at Perth. He was dropped in 1996 but fought his way back into the team and scored his first Test hundred against England on the 1997 Ashes Tour and has since never looked back. He had played 22 Tests by the end of 1998, with 1209 runs at an average of 36.63. He was a permanent fixture in the ODI team throughout this period.

Captaincy

When Steve Waugh was removed from the one-day team in February 2002, Ponting was chosen as skipper, ahead of then vice-captain Adam Gilchrist. The fortunes of the ODI team immediately revived and Ponting led his team to a dominant, undefeated, performance in the 2003 World Cup. The final, in which India were defeated featured Ponting`s 8 sixes. After Steve Waugh`s retirement at the beginning of 2004, Ponting assumed the Test captaincy. Since 1997, the Australian team has not always had the same captain for Tests and for ODIs, with Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh being dropped from the ODI team whilst still the Test captain. Ponting was entrusted with both responsibilities. Ashes 2005 Prior to the 2006-07 Ashes series in Australia, Ponting`s captaincy record was 22 wins from 30 matches, a better ratio of success than any previous Australian captain with more than 10 matches captained. Australia were defeated by England 2 wins to 1. Ponting thus became the first Australian captain since Allan Border in 1985 to fail to defend The Ashes. The 2005 series was widely hailed as one of the best ever Test series, but Ponting faced significant criticism afterwards and his tenure as captain was questioned. In his defence, Ponting said that Australia had simply been outplayed and had not stepped up at crucial moments in the matches. Following the disappointment in England, Ponting retained the captaincy and began a rich run of batting form. In the 2005-06 season, he scored a century in both innings of a Test match three times, and became the first player to score a century in each innings of his 100th Test match. He is only the second player (after Sunil Gavaskar) to score centuries in both innings of a Test match three times, and the first to do so in a single season. He began the 2006-07 Ashes series in Australia with scores of 196 and 60 not out at Brisbane and 142 and 49 at Adelaide. These two centuries took him past Steve Waugh for the Australian record for Test centuries and raised his career average above 60, taking his calendar-year-to-date average to 104.08. He was over 500 runs behind the new calendar year record established on 30 November 2006 by Mohammad Yousuf with a maximum of four more Test innings available to him for the year. He has now compiled 33 centuries, the most by an Australian, to stand in fourth place on the all-time list. Only Sachin Tendulkar (35), Brian Lara (34) and Sunil Gavaskar (34) have scored more.

The flip side

However Ponting’s illustrious career has not been without its own setbacks. Off-field problems tormented his cricket during the early parts of his career. He was known to get into fights at clubs, and had to publicly admit he had an alcohol problem. It is a compliment not only to Australian cricket, but the cricketing world, that Ponting was able to recover from these set-backs and continued to deliver, enthralling us with many great knocks. Ponting-the private persona

Besides being one of the cricketing greats of our times, Ponting’s personal life reveals many more lesser-known facets of his persona. Ricky married his long-time girlfriend, law student Rianna Cantor, in June 2002. He has himself credited her as a reason for the maturity evident in his game in recent years. A well-known off-field interest of Ponting`s is betting on horse and greyhound races, revealed by his nickname, "Punter". Ponting is also a talented golfer and a keen supporter - and number one ticket holder - of the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League. Right-handed batsman, right-arm medium pacer, one of the most gifted cricketers of our times Ricky Ponting has played for major teams like Australia, ICC World XI, Somerset, Tasmania. Although he started out batting in the middle order Ponting rose to number three and already ranks as one of the sport`s greatest batsmen with plenty of years left in him. Clearly,he has carved a niche for himself in the sport in more ways than one and his fans can certainly hope to see this Tasmanian batsman in action in many more matches to come.