Expert insight, entertainment and some embarrassing pictures…
Monday 17 August 2015 12:12, UK
Michael Clarke is to retire from international cricket after the fifth and final Investec Ashes Test at The Oval - but there’s another Australian who we bid a fond farewell to before then.
Ricky Ponting – who has been a brilliant addition to the Sky Cricket commentary team for the first four Tests – is returning home, due a well-deserved break with his stint in the UK fresh off the back of two months in the Indian Premier League as coach of the victorious Mumbai Indians.
Ponting leaves with the bitter taste of an Ashes defeat in his mouth, but during his time with the team he has provided plenty of insight, entertainment and some embarrassing pictures...
Watch his top moments in the video above and read more about them in the paragraphs below.
Confrontation with kid in the crowd
During his time as captain of Australia, Ponting had to develop a thick-skin on his trips to England. Often booed to and from the crease, Ponting is used to the abuse served out from the home fans. He finally cracked, though, when cameras cut to this young fan in the crowd, with Ponting threatening to take things to the car park. We think the kid could have taken him!
Teasing 10 years on from Edgbaston toss
This series was always going to evoke memories of that famous Ashes series in 2005 and nowhere more so than Edgbaston, scene of England’s two-run win. Ponting’s big mistake was to bowl first after winning the toss, having earlier lost Glenn McGrath to injury. Nasser Hussain – no master of the coin toss himself – and co weren’t going to let Ricky forget his error.
Trent Bridge run-out trauma
That 2005 series followed Ricky like a bad smell. Next on the hit-list, his expletive-filled rant at the England balcony after being run-out by England’s substitute fielder Gary Pratt at a crucial time in the Trent Bridge Test. Ponting took the ridicule all in his stride though, a trademark of his time in the commentary box, managing to not take himself too seriously.
Ponting’s old pics
And how can you take yourself too seriously in the face of old pictures from your playing days like the ones dug out of him and Steve Smith? Ponting only had himself to blame this time as he offered up the embarrassing pic of a young Smith on an A tour to England 10 years ago, only to have a fresh-faced photo of himself come back to haunt him.
Masterful masterclass
All joking aside, the best of Ponting in this summer’s Ashes came in the Ashes Zone. At Lord’s, he offered insight into confronting the slope and facing left-armers – one England obviously didn’t pay too much attention too as they were skittled out for 103 that same day. At Trent Bridge, meanwhile, he gave a catching demo, but best of all was when Australians Ponting, Shane Warne and Ian Healy rolled back the years at Edgbaston and put on a masterclass of epic proportions to make it obvious why England didn’t win home Ashes series in the 1990s quite so easily as they do now.
