Australia's Test Captaincy under scrutiny
It seems that Australia’s test captaincy is definitely up for grabs after the team’s recent slump to another series loss on Indian soil under Ricky Ponting’s captaincy. Ponting’ troubles have been compounded after the public criticism of his captaincy and
calls for his removal from the job by several respected Australian cricketers of the past. Foremost in this group are legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne and former test fast bowler Geoff Lawson. Warne’s comments must have been the more humiliating
of the two because coming from a former teammate they must have hurt much more.
It has never exactly been plain sailing for Ponting as Australia’s captain, although he is the most successful Australian captain of all time with more number of test wins than any other Australian captain. But on the other hand, he has also had the ignominy
of being the first captain to lead an Australian side to an Ashes series defeat (in the Ashes series of 2005) since Allan Border in 1987. He did bounce back from that particular low in his captaincy career in remarkable fashion though, beating the English
in the following Ashes (of 2006-07) by a margin of 5-0 and in the process becoming the first Australian captain since Warwick Armstrong in 1920 to whitewash an England side. The calls for his removal have become louder and more frequent after his second Ashes
series loss as captain (he is also incidentally one of only three Australian captains in history to have suffered two losses in Ashes series). And the recent series loss in India, which was also his second as captain in India, might be the final nail in Ponting’s
coffin as captain.
Even though he is being widely criticized for his policies and particularly for his failure to use Nathan Hauritz as a match winning option, it has to be realized that Australia’s depleted bowling resources have made it much more difficult for Ponting to
produce the results he did in the past. It has to be kept in mind by his detractors that the current Australian bowling line-up certainly does not have any one to match the calibre of Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee in their ranks, let alone their being compared
to McGrath and Warne. In such a situation it is extremely foolhardy to expect the same kind of domination from this Australian team as was usual for Australian teams of the past 15-20 years. The new-look Australian team should be given more time to gel under
the current captain, before extraordinary expectations are put on their in-experienced shoulders. However, Ponting can take solace from the fact that his coach Tim Nielsen has publicly defended his captaincy. Ponting himself said in a statement on Thursday,
upon returning to Australia after the recently concluded test series in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, that he had no doubt in his mind that he was still the best man to lead Australia in test matches.
One other thing that those former players who are calling for his head must consider is that Australia does not have much choice in this matter at the moment. For the most eligible players in Australians’ minds to take over the mantle from Ponting is Michael
Clarke, and he is not exactly in the batting form of his life, is he? How he would be able to cope with the added pressure of captaincy on top of his poor string of batting performances, is not a question that can be safely answered at this moment in time.
The up-coming one-day series against India in which Clarke is to lead http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 is going to be a stern test for his captaincy skills. It should also provide the Australian selectors with a good indication as to whether Clarke is up to handling the burden on
a permanent basis in the future or not.
Concluding, it must be reiterated that a major shake-up in the Australian team’s hierarchy before this year’s Ashes series would be unwise for Australian cricket in the long term. Also looking at http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120’s run of poor performances and the statements issued
by the higher-ups in the Australian Cricket Board, it does not seem very likely that Ricky Ponting would be removed from the Australian test captaincy any time soon.
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