Australian captain Ricky Ponting smashes TV in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750... has he finally snapped under pressure?
Has Australian skipper Ricky Ponting finally snapped under pressure? Everyone is asking the question since news of the flamboyant Aussie broke out that he had taken out his anger on a television set in Ahmadabad, India.
According to reports, Ponting was upset after he got run out by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 in Australia’s first match of the ICC World Cup 2011 this week. Apparently, he could be seen angry at himself as he walked out of the ground. But his anger needed a vent and he decided
that an LCD TV in the Australian dressing room was the right recipient of his wrath.
According to report, the TV cost about 30,000 Indian rupees. Initially, Ponting was said to have smashed the TV with his bat, but later reports clarified his protector was to blame.
Perhaps, LCD TVs are not very expensive, but in countries like India, unprovoked aggression against a pretty expensive TV set is not acceptable. Ponting learnt it the hard way. The Australian team management asked the ground administration – the Gujarat
Cricket Association (GCA) – to please replace the TV after the incident, humbly hoping it wouldn’t be a bother. But boy were they in for a surprise.
The GCA didn’t take the matter lightly and made it clear to the Aussies that a formal complaint would be launched against Ponting.
The Aussie skipper was taken aback with this reaction. He offered to pay for the damage, but the GCA still went ahead with a formal complaint to the International Cricket Council.
The ICC reprimanded Ponting which its lowest possible punishment for the offence. He was charged under section 2.1.2 of the ICC's Code of Conduct for players – the crime being the abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings
during an international match.
This was perhaps the last time any Australian would dare to vent his anger on a TV set in India. Australia won the match anyway, so why was the skipper ticked in the first place? Maybe he had been bottling up anger for too long and finally it came out at
the wrong time and at a wrong place.
Cricket followers know that Australia have been under pressure for the past year and their form and reputation had hit rock-bottom during the Indian Tour when they were beaten by the hosts and dethroned from the first place in Test cricket. If that wasn’t
bad enough, they were beaten by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in the Ashes after 24 years.
Time has been tough for the reigning ODI champions and with most of their first-choice players such as Michael Hussey out of the World Cup due to an injury. It will be even harder for Ponting to lead his side into a fourth consecutive World Cup triumph.
Perhaps with so much on his mind it was hard for Ricky Ponting to keep the anger inside anymore and when he got run out, that was it. However, being skipper of the world’s number one team in One-Day cricket, Ponting should have kept his cool. With the skipper
showing such erratic behaviour, how would he be expected to control hot-headed players like Shane Watson and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Brett-Lee-c1197.
Anyway, that was an incident best forgotten for Ponting. It’s time Aussies focussed on the tournament at hand and forgot about tough times that they have had in the past otherwise fans just might be seeing more TV damaging stunts in the coming days.
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