Being a nice guy might be good for the media conferences, but it doesn't necessarily make you a good leader. In fact you are probably better off not being a nice guy in many cases. Ian Chappell would be an example.
Well to break it gently: Warne did not play in either of the world cups captained by Ponting!!!!!!!
McGrath played in both, but each time he was missing a key lieutenant. Gillespie in 2003 and Lee in 2007.
So yeah, the attack was hardly an out of this world prospect. We had Andy Bichel in 2003 for crying out loud...must have been Ricky's captaincy that got us over the line :cool:
I've got mixed feelings about Pontings captaincy. Watching games he seems to try quite a few things - two short midwickets to Broom the other night just the latest example on the top of my head. Those who argue he lacks imagination or smarts are mostly wrong IMO. And he doesn't let a game drift as badly as Kumble used to do, for example. On the other hand, some things he does are a little confusing and the Nagpur debacle was among the worst pieces of captaincy ever.
But watching the Allan Border Medal last night reminded me of how few captaincy changes Australia has had. 25 years ago Allan Border took the captaincy, since then there has been Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ponting. That's it - in 25 years. So it's highly unlikely Ponting will be turfed before he retires. If we lose in both South Africa and England, there will be a lot of muttering though. If we win those series or even draw, he's probably got the job for life.
Good post overall.
However a slight lack of agreement regarding McGrath lacking support in the WCs. In 2003, he had Andy Bichel who was simply Mendisque in that cup. In 2007, he had Tait's services. So McG did not lack support as such.
And as to Ponting's captaincy, the sooner Australia realises that Ponting's captaincy is still stuck in the golden years, the better, and hence they would do well to bring in a seismic change at the top by bringing in a non-delusional, no-nonsense captain at the top. A captain, who would not draw undue attention to himself, unlike what Ponting's been doing these days, particularly in the Haddin case. My suggestion would be Simon Katich. He has shown the fighting spirit that Aussies lacked in the last one year. And his hard but not-in-your-face aggression is exactly what Aussies need right now.
Precambrian added 2 Minutes and 16 Seconds later...
Ricky should stay as a captain
He won two worldcups for us and 16 test victories in a row
By that logic, Bradman should have continued to play post 1950, Doesnt he?
Please come out of 2007. We are in 2009, and the cricketing world has turned literally topsy turvy.
Ponting did both because of the team he had, and not merely because he was a good captain.
And don't try to come back at me quoting what MS Dhoni has done, because I don;t rate him highly as well (atleast until he wins a WC with probably the strongest ODI side we had ever, that is now).
Precambrian added 3 Minutes and 46 Seconds later...
Falling big? I disagree. They could have won any of the matches in the fantastic test series. In the ODIs, they suffered from injuries, bad luck and a form slump from a few of the players. All teams go through it. Tell me, exactly how is Ponting the one to blame for this? ...... Because you don't like him, right?
He was joint winner of the Alan Border Medal; hardly bad form.
You want to know why Australia aren't the best in the world? Because McGrath, Warne, Langer, Hayden and Gilchrist left all too soon within each other. Ponting has been, and still is their best batsman and the right person to captain the team. End of story. Yes, the guy comes across as arrogant and bossy, but he is a bloody good player and a fine captain.
AB Medal is indicator of good form? Lolololol! That's just freaking stupid and funny as well. Ponting averaged much lesser than Katich or Clarke in the last year, and I don't get how the flippin he got that award. Especially in an year when Australia lost more marbles than it won.