Australia needs a new captain

[Collingwood50]

RIGHT !!!!, Rant time

A NEW CAPTAIN??? I would love to have a captain as 'bad' as Ricky Ponting. England have had about one hundred and forty seven million captains in the past two weeks. You Aussies have one of the most committed captain's of the test playing nations. Second, your 'Captain' averages 57 in test cricket. I don't know about you but I think that that is a fine example to be set to your up and coming youngsters. I don't know, but i expect no captain of a test side has an average above 55, let alone 57!. Thirdly, Do you want a novice to lead you on your tour to get thrashed this summer? The most experienced player on the pitch is funnily enough your captain, and I would find it very hard for anyone to argue otherwise (I'm not being a hypocritical pom here, because I think Collingwood should be captain - most experienced ODI player!) Lastly, Ponting should be captain for his bowling. Those soaring medium paced trundlers that dibble and dabble so majestically of the seam are a joy to be-hold, and after all, is that not something we can all measure captaincy in?

And another thing as a pom, I would be most scared of Australia under Ponting, and isn't that what, at the end of the day you want? I think that Cricket these days is all mind games, and no one plays those better than Punter...

 

[shubhrayu]

Well A Skipper who's given you 2 COnsecutive world cups just cannot be removed

 

[srikarr12]

Well A Skipper who's given you 2 COnsecutive world cups just cannot be removed

A skipper who cant survive without his allstar team should be removed asap!!

 

[metallics2006]

I doubt anyone else in the Oz side could have handled this mass-retirement scenario any better than Ponting. Better to have an experienced guy like him as the captain till the situation gets better than to hand over the reins to a new guy and put him under pressure as well. I also strongly believe that Shane Warne becoming the coach for Australia in the future will do wonders to the side.

 

[King Pietersen]

A skipper who cant survive without his allstar team should be removed asap!!

Would Dhoni survive if he lost players of the calibre of Warne, McGrath, Hayden, Langer, Martyn, Gilchrist and the often forgotten man Stuart MacGill? Plus injuries to many first-team players like Lee and Clark, and add to that the idiocy of Andrew Symonds, and the drop in form of Michael Hussey. Dhoni's had to captain a side that's lost Ganguly and Kumble, 2 players that weren't as good as they were in their primes. Alot of those retiring Aussies were still performing at a fantastic level. I'd like to see any captain maintain results after losing that many class players.

 

[Collingwood50]

Would Dhoni survive if he lost players of the calibre of Warne, McGrath, Hayden, Langer, Martyn, Gilchrist and the often forgotten man Stuart MacGill? Plus injuries to many first-team players like Lee and Clark, and add to that the idiocy of Andrew Symonds, and the drop in form of Michael Hussey. Dhoni's had to captain a side that's lost Ganguly and Kumble, 2 players that weren't as good as they were in their primes. Alot of those retiring Aussies were still performing at a fantastic level. I'd like to see any captain maintain results after losing that many class players.

swish

 

[Cricketman]

Would Dhoni survive if he lost players of the calibre of Warne, McGrath, Hayden, Langer, Martyn, Gilchrist and the often forgotten man Stuart MacGill? Plus injuries to many first-team players like Lee and Clark, and add to that the idiocy of Andrew Symonds, and the drop in form of Michael Hussey. Dhoni's had to captain a side that's lost Ganguly and Kumble, 2 players that weren't as good as they were in their primes. Alot of those retiring Aussies were still performing at a fantastic level. I'd like to see any captain maintain results after losing that many class players.

Haha, Dhoni has played without Dravid, Ganguly, Harbhajan, and half of the time Sachin Tendulkar and has still won most of the time in the ODI format.

Kumble had a bad patch but who cares, so was Gilchrist. You don't replace a guy like Kumble every day, he's the third best spinner of this generation. Yet, India still keeps winning. Ganguly was in fantastic form when he retired, especially in that series. He got a 90 odd I think in the first innings of his last match, too. Yet, we still win. Even if Dravid were to call it a day in NZ, Badri would debut and guess what, we'd still win.

 

[jordox]

This thread surely has to be the funniest of the year.

It all was sparked because:

A: The Indian irrational disliking for Ponting

and

B: A few losses.

Jesus. Give them time. It's not Ponting's fault if they have to go into a little slump because they lost nearly half their team. And besides, Australia are still pretty much the best in the world in my books. India, South Africa and Australia are all equal, and all capable of beating each other. Look at what Australia are doing to South Africa at the moment. Anyone who is still harping on, and jumping on the "AUSTRALIA IS GOING DOWN!" bandwagon should shut up for a few minutes and watch what they are STILL capable of doing to world class teams.

 

[Roofrom50]

Here here

 

[Jakester1288]

Would Dhoni survive if he lost players of the calibre of Warne, McGrath, Hayden, Langer, Martyn, Gilchrist and the often forgotten man Stuart MacGill? Plus injuries to many first-team players like Lee and Clark, and add to that the idiocy of Andrew Symonds, and the drop in form of Michael Hussey. Dhoni's had to captain a side that's lost Ganguly and Kumble, 2 players that weren't as good as they were in their primes. Alot of those retiring Aussies were still performing at a fantastic level. I'd like to see any captain maintain results after losing that many class players.

This thread surely has to be the funniest of the year.

It all was sparked because:

A: The Indian irrational disliking for Ponting

and

B: A few losses.

Jesus. Give them time. It's not Ponting's fault if they have to go into a little slump because they lost nearly half their team. And besides, Australia are still pretty much the best in the world in my books. India, South Africa and Australia are all equal, and all capable of beating each other. Look at what Australia are doing to South Africa at the moment. Anyone who is still harping on, and jumping on the "AUSTRALIA IS GOING DOWN!" bandwagon should shut up for a few minutes and watch what they are STILL capable of doing to world class teams.

I agree completely with these two posts.

Good stuff guys.

 

[.::Stevo::.]

I'd like to see ANY team in the world perform at a good standard with the loss of amazing players we have lost. And not only that, many of our key players are out through injury.

Yet we 'could' of won every test match against SA, Ended up losing 2-1, not a smashing. And at the moment we are thumping South Africa with a very inexperienced side. I think i saw that Ponting has half or two thirds of the total caps in the side. So who else could possibly be captain....

 

[King Pietersen]

Haha, Dhoni has played without Dravid, Ganguly, Harbhajan, and half of the time Sachin Tendulkar and has still won most of the time in the ODI format.

Kumble had a bad patch but who cares, so was Gilchrist. You don't replace a guy like Kumble every day, he's the third best spinner of this generation. Yet, India still keeps winning. Ganguly was in fantastic form when he retired, especially in that series. He got a 90 odd I think in the first innings of his last match, too. Yet, we still win. Even if Dravid were to call it a day in NZ, Badri would debut and guess what, we'd still win.

You're not trying to say that India losing Dravid, Ganguly and Harbhajan in ODi's, and losing Ganguly and Kumble in Tests is the same as Australia losing Hayden, Langer, Martyn, Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist and MacGill plus Lee and Clark to injuries, and Symonds to idiocy. India have lost some world class players, but on a level nowhere near that of Australia. They've basically had to reshuffle the whole team, with a completely new bowling attack, no spinner and a new opening partnership.

Love the arrogance at the end of that post as well "we could lose Dravid in NZ, and guess what, we'd still win", I hope India lose in NZ even more now

 

[sifter132]

A skipper who cant survive without his allstar team should be removed asap!!

Who's to say that this hypothetical skipper wasn't the inspirational leader that the allstars in the team needed to perform?



Oh and completely agree with the last few posts regarding Dhoni. Man people love Dhoni...

 

[Cricketman]

Simply put, I don't think he's as good of a captain as he's hailed to be. Mahela, Fleming, Ganguly etc were better in my opinion because they accomplished so much with on more often then not a half rate team. Now that Ponting is getting down there, he's faltering a bit. I just don't think he's as technically savvy as a Steve Waugh, or as inspiring as Ganguly, or has the instincts of Dhoni. He's average.

 

[Burgey]

Simply put, I don't think he's as good of a captain as he's hailed to be. Mahela, Fleming, Ganguly etc were better in my opinion because they accomplished so much with on more often then not a half rate team. Now that Ponting is getting down there, he's faltering a bit. I just don't think he's as technically savvy as a Steve Waugh, or as inspiring as Ganguly, or has the instincts of Dhoni. He's average.

Dhoni's been in the job 5 minutes. It's easy to be a test skipper at home and when you're winning. Wait until the other mob's 6-600 and he's playing away, then see how intuitive and brilliant he is. He also has some good bowlers atm, which is what being a successful captain is really all about.

I don't know anyone who's ever rated Ponting as a brilliant or even a really, really good captain. In fact, even when he gets it right, he gets bugger all credit. His true test is coming now, and the fact Hayden, being the last of the previously great side, is gone means he now has a chance to make this "his" side. Personally, I'd hope he will relax into the job more than before given he now doesn't have to defend the legacy of a side which is >>>>>>>> the one he has now.