Arrogant Ponting Must be Fired

Ricky Ponting must be sacked as captain of the Australian cricket team. If Cricket Australia cares a fig for the tattered reputation of our national team in our national sport it will not for a moment longer tolerate the sort of arrogant and abrasive conduct seem from the captain and his senior players over the last few days. Beyond comparison it was the ugliest performance put up by an Australian side for twenty years. The only surprising part of it is that the Indians have not packed their bags and gone home.

That the senior players in the Australian team are oblivious to the fury they raised amongst many followers of the game in this country and beyond its shores merely confirms their own narrow and self-obsessed viewpoint. Doubtless they were not exposed to the messages that poured in from distressed enthusiasts aghast to see the scenes of bad sportsmanship and triumphalism presented at the SCG during and after the match. Pained past players rang to express their private disgust. It was a wretched and ill-mannered display and not to be endured from any side let alone an international outfit representing a proud sporting nation. Make no mistake it is not only the reputation of these cricketers that has suffered. Australia itself has been embarrassed.

Ricky Ponting batting. England vs Australia ODI – Oval 2010. 
Photo credit: Paul from United Kingdom [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The notion that Ponting can hereafter take the Australian team to India is preposterous. He has shown not the slightest interest in the well-being of the game, not the slightest sign of diplomatic skills, not a single mark of respect for his accomplished and widely admired opponents. Harbhajan Singh can be an irritating young man but he is head of a family and responsible for raising 9 people. And all the Australians elders want to do is to hunt him from the game. Australian fieldsmen fire insults from the corners of their mouths, an intemperate sikh warrior overreacts and his rudeness is seized upon. It might impress barrack room lawyers.

In the last few days the Australian captain has presided over a performance that dragged the game into the pits. He turned a group of professional cricketers into a pack of wild dogs. As much can be told from the conduct of his closest allies in the team. As usual Matthew Hayden crossed himself upon reaching three figures in his commanding second innings, a gesture he does not perform whilst wearing the colours of his State. Exactly how he combines his faith with throwing his weight around on the field has long bemused opposing sides, whose fondness for him ran out a long time ago. Hayden has much better in him.

Michael Clarke also had a dreadful match but he is a young man and has time to rethink his outlook. That his mind was in disarray could be told from his batting. In the first innings he offered no short t a straight ball and in the second he remained at the crease after giving an easy catch to slip. On this evidence Clarke cannot be promoted to the vice-captaincy of his country. It is a captan’s primary task to rear hs younger players and to prepare his successor for the ordeals of office.

Nothing need be said about the catch Clarke took in the second innings except that in the prevailing circumstances the umpires were ill-advised to take anyone’s word for anything. The Indians were convinced that Ponting grounded a catch he claimed on the final afternoon at the SCG. Throughout those heated hours, the Australian captain remained hostile, kicking the ground, demanding decisions, pressurising the umpires. So much for the corporate smile that has been produced these last few years.