Ricky Ponting an example

Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain is having a wretched run losing the Test series to South Africa and India, after having a roller coaster run when he first took over the captaincy from Steve Waugh.

At the time of writing, Ponting is leading the kangaroos in a Test series in South Africa and another loss and his captaincy could come into question. That happens to all losing captains.

It is cruel but that is how the game of captaincy goes.

But in writing about the stylish right handed Ricky Ponting at this point is to congratulate the Aussie captain for making it his business to skip the Indian Premier League and concentrate in keeping himself fit to fight the old enemy England in the coming Ashes series.

Had Ponting agreed to play in the cash flowing IPL he would have been signing all the way to his bank after pocketing a lot of dollars. But Ponting put country before self and said damn with the money, the Ashes series is more important.

I was in New Zealand when the previous Ashes series was played in Australia and took in the action with Asoka Atapattu another England fanatic now based in NZ and did we not poke fun at each when the Englishmen under Andrew Flintoff were getting a bashing.

That Ashes series ended in a five-nil rout of the Englishmen which has never happened before, in the history of the meeting of these two cricketing gladiators.

Cricket’s showpiece is the Ashes series. The Aussies would not mind losing to any country, but not the Englishmen and vice versa. There is so much pride, prestige and honour to protect in this series, that losing becomes anathema to both the Kangaroos and the lions.

With Aussie cricket on the skids in recent times, the British Lions were cock-a-hoop licking their lips and waiting eagerly to devour the Kangaroos. But the Lions too are not having it easy against the West Indies in the Caribbean and when Ashes series time comes around both teams would be evenly matched and thrill a minute cricket could be expected.

As for the Aussies the standard of their game has dropped after the retirement of their magnificent six and they are now in the process of building up a team of terminators who would decimate the Englishmen at their own game.

As for the Englishmen the spat between captain Kevin Pietersen and coach Peter Moores led to Pietersen chucking the captaincy and Moores losing his coaching job. That was something that the Englishmen and their cricket could ill afford.

But now another South African Andrew Strauss is leading England and they too are fighting to have the lions raring to go at the Aussies when Ashes series time comes around.

IPL and ICL

The Indian Premier and the Indian Cricket League are still playing a game of their own with recent meeting to solve the enmity between the two ending in failure in Johannesburg, South Africa last week.

The crux of their problem is that the International Cricket Council recognises the IPL and not the ICL and the fallout is that cricketers playing in the ICL are banned from representing their countries, which me thinks is not cricket.

The ICL is contesting this and what is inexplicable is that the governing body of the game the ICC cannot bring about a solution agreeable to both the IPL and the ICL.

Sad that the ICC is lacking teeth to bite into the warring parties and get them to come to a sporting agreement which could be beneficial to all - the IPL, the ICL and the ICC.

If the stalemate that was in Johannesburg is an indication then it would not come as a surprise if this battle leads to and ends in court room drama. If and when that happens it would be a black mark on the honoured and revered game of cricket.

Referral system going bonkers

The referral system which first saw the light of the day when the Indians played a Test series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka seems to be heading no where and possibly to its demise.

The International Cricket Council hatched this and gave birth to this system where a team was allowed three referrals, where they could refer a decision made by the on field umpire to the third umpire if they think that the on field umpire had boobed.

True the ICC introduced this system in all good faith. But they have now come to realise that there are flaws in the system and now the on going series between Australia and South Africa sees the three referrals reduced to two for each team.

When Dave Richardson, the ICC representative was here during the Sri Lanka-India series cawed about the good of the system, I said my bit and criticised it because I wanted the game to be played like when it was first played and that is that the umpire’s word should remain law, because the umpires were not cheating.

The sooner the ICC does away with this system instead of insulting the umpires, the better.

In the Test match at the Wanderers one referral was nullified because the technology was not functioning. Then when Mark Boucher was given out caught behind by Haddin off Mitchell Johnson by umpire Billy Bowden, Boucher was shaking his head in disbelief and went to the third umpire. The third umpire upheld Bowden’s decision.

TV replays showed Boucher gesticulating and telling his team mates in the pavilion that he did not get a touch. Will Boucher be hauled up for dissent?