Is Ponting a good captain?
Posted by Sathyamurthy www.sathyamurthy.com on December 21, 2008
Peter Della Penna is a cricket enthusiast hailing from New Jersey in the United States. His first experience with cricket came while studying abroad in Sydney, Australia during the 2005 Ashes series. It was then and there he caught the cricket bug and has not looked back. Della Penna follows all international cricket, but with a keen focus on Australia’s test cricket team.
In his latest post Australia may finally becoming undone he has opined that Australia should not have played Brett Lee in this match as also Peter Siddle. He feels Lee is a waste of time and Lee’s performances do not inspire confidence. He simply feels Lee sucks!
I agree with him that Watson should have played in this match. I also agree with Peter that Lee is not performing as much as is expected of him. I however, do not think the match result would have been any different even if Watson had played.
The problem is Australia has lost too many match winners too rapidly. The absence of McGrath, Warne and Gilchrist is easily noticed. It was evident when Australia visited our country (INDIA).
Further, Ricky Ponting appears one of the most unimaginative captains in contemporary cricket. He doesn’t marshal his resources well, doesn’t seem to have a strategy for any opposition batsman. He seems to be busy worrying about over rates and picking up opponent team players for reporting to match referee.
True he has won a lot of games for Australia as its captain. But how many has he won after the departure of McGrath, Warne and Gilchrist?
Digitising thoughts 
Peter Della Penna said
Ponting is indeed proving to be an average captain. While Gilchrist was a dynamic player and much better than Haddin, Haddin is no slouch. The batting has not been bad either, even in India several players scored hundreds. For God’s sake, they posted scores in this match to give the bowlers 414 runs to work with. The reason they lost in India was because they did not take 20 wickets until the final match and even that was a chore. They have had the batting depth to replace Langer, Martyn, Gilchrist and then Jaques when he went down injured. But having Stuart Clark injured killed the like for like McGrath replacement. Now the selectors are going to be forced to play a game of musical chairs to find a third seamer because Lee has lost it faster than Jason Gillespie and doesn’t appear to get it back, or score a double hundred, any time soon. They had no problem tossing Gillespie to the crows, but for some reason are clinging to Lee????
The selectors have treated Nathan Bracken like crap when it comes to the test scene even though he was the best one day bowler in the world for two years running. Ashley Noffke was the state player of the year in 2008 and toured the West Indies but never saw any action and hasn’t been fully healthy this season. Doug Bollinger toured India after a solid 2008 but is off the radar now. Ben Hilfenhaus is another who has a central contract but is not getting a mention despite bagging wickets. Another one under wraps is Luke Butterworth of Tasmania. There are options out there, options that are better than Brett Lee and his evil slow-medium bowling step-brother Shaun Tait.
achettup said
Nice blog! Ponting is an awful captain who spends far too much of his time shouting himself hoarse at either the opposition, the press or the umpires. You’d be hard pressed to find a worse behaved captain in international cricket. Add to that his worry about recollecting $4k from Chris Broad for getting ahead of the over rate (how can you even have the nerve to make that suggestion after you lost the border gavaskar trophy because you were worried about over rates?) and you’re left with the kind of person who spits in his hands when he’s looking for motivation.
Peter, Lee is out of form but if they drop him their bowling attack will have next to zero experience. He didn’t bowl badly in this match but it fits along with his career stats, he really never was anything special. The reason they could afford to drop Gillespie back then is because their bowling attack had the likes of McGrath and Warne and they needed a scapegoat after the Ashes 2005.
triplicani said
There was one use for Brett Lee from Indian perspective. As an youngster I think he played either in the same team or as friendly opponents with our Very Very Special Laxman. And probably was friendly at the crease too, looking at the enormous strike rate VVS has against Australians that included Brett Lee for most times. 🙂
triplicani said
You are very correct Peter. The batsmen did give enough runs – 413 – but SA had too much time at their disposal to score these runs. And they were clearly playing a sub-par bowling attack being marshaled by a sub-par captain. I can bet you that the same set of bowlers under a Steve Waugh or MS Dhoni or Sourav Ganguly or Greame Smith or Mark Taylor or Mike Brearly (he is at the same time the captain I love and the batsman I loathe) would have easily defended 413 and secured a victory for Australia.
Tarun said
I bet u have heard the following before…
“Jo jeeta wohi sikandar.”
(Jo haara woh bandar (notthing to do with Symonda)
triplicani said
🙂
I don’t like betting in cricket! But I have heard that saying.
You might be interested to read some of my posts on the Monkey Gate. These are here:
Enjoy!
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