What went wrong for Ricky Ponting?
2010 did not prove to be a good year for Australian Captain Ricky Ponting, at all.
It took just an hour to relish the moment every English cricket fan had been waiting for 24 years. Tim Bresnan was the man of the moment who found Australian tail-ender Ben Hilfenhaus’ edge and Matt Prior took the catch and it meant only one thing- the Grim
Reaper awaited for Ponting in the dressing room.
England retained the urn and their pride, whereas Ponting lost everything. He now has the honour of being the second Australian captain to lead three unsuccessful Ashes campaigns.
Ponting is burning in the ‘Ashes’ himself. The wound of the little finger injury was still fresh when he got himself involved in a referral row with umpire Aleem Dar on the second day of the Melbourne Test. He was fined 40 per cent of his match fee as he
faced a lot of backlash from his peers, the media and even his colleagues in international cricket. Even people from Football were pointing their fingers at the distressed captain.
There were calls for relieving Ponting off his duty after the first six months of the year when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758
and of course England.
The Boxing Day Test served as a real boxing ring for Ponting as he questioned the decision of TV umpire http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Marais-Erasmus-c74368 and Dar over an appeal against England’s batsman Kevin Pietersen. It was termed as disrespectful with Australian great Ian Chappell calling
for Ponting’s ban in the last and final Ashes Test at Sydney.
So yes, Mr ‘Punter’ Ponting is in an insurmountable dilemma. He knows the consequences of losing the Ashes trophy, let alone losing the title on a home ground. And even Ponting would admit that he failed as a captain. His counterpart, Andrew Strauss had
everything working for him. Even his white uniform was far crisper than Ponting.
He could have escaped the wrath of the media and the supporters and millions of cricket crazy people around the world by maybe breaking the finger for once and all. He might have thought that he could become a hero if he played with an injury but it did
not work. Not a tinge of luck with the injury, Punter.
He even stayed awake in the night on the Christmas Eve as well as Christmas night, praying for a miracle as he requested Santa for a win. But he forgot that Santa listens to good boys and he has not been a good boy this year. Instead of getting a good night’s
sleep by drinking hot chocolate milkshakes and taking his multi-vitamins, he spent the night praying to Santa. That did not work out for him either.
He ate a lot of Christmas food when he knew that he should not have. He gulped in alcohol yet he knew it would not do any favours for him. It was proved on the Boxing Day as his team jiggled away for a paltry 98.
He thought that maybe he could get away by assaulting the umpires and being banned. However, luck was not on his side even this time.
The last thing he could do was take the Dubai route and be the first 'run away' captain and then get himself into a Walt Disney film on ducks.
However, Zulqarnain Haider has already done that and has it copyrighted as well.
So, yes Ponting had a bad year. Enough said.
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