Punter Jumps ... Halfway

In a major press conference held at the SCG at 1:00pm today, Ricky Ponting announced he has relinquished the Test and ODI captaincy of Australia. He further announced his willingness to continue in the side as a batsman. With the Australian selectors about to announce their touring side to Bangladesh tomorrow, the timing was right for Ponting.

The decision further underline Ponting's inability to face the facts which have stacked up against him for two years. Its not his captaincy that's in decline as its never been great. Its his ability to consistently get the scores which will win games for Australia. This muted partial capitulation will only serve to create a shaky start to Michael Clarke's permanency as captain, and blight him with a fading star to manage through the undoubted failures which will occur.

Clearly, Ponting has been tapped on the shoulder, despite his protestations otherwise. That was obvious from his statements upon returning to Australia. The problem is, he may not have been tapped hard enough.

In the best interests of Australian cricket and the rebuild it needs to begin today, Ponting should accept the praise for his last innings, thank his team mates, nod with a smile at the accolades a champion gets by due reward and wave farewell.

Anything less is selfish and condemns Australia to a longer wait for the success that new blood and a new direction can give. What's needed now is a return to the conceptual basics that Lawrie Sawle devised and saw into practice in the 1980's which made us champions for twenty years. For that, new men must stand in the shoes of Andrew Hilditch, David Boon and Jamie Cox as none of them have the vision Sawle had. Even though Greg Chappell sat beside Sawle for much of his time, there are reasons to doubt him after his recent defence of Ponting's on field dummy spit.

The question remains: has Cricket Australia been brave enough with Ponting? We'll know in a few hours.

Postscript: Ricky acts alone apparently and who can argue with that claim. If the selectors had a say would they really wish to retain a batsman who has scored only 1403 runs at 39 in the last two years? In there, only two centuries ... one in July 2009 against England at Cardiff at the start of a losing campaign and the double century against Pakistan as far back as January last year on home turf at Bellerive when he watched a sitter go down before he scored.

There is only one former Australian captain who stood down from the captaincy - only one - and batted on with success. Ian Chappell stood down when still in peak form and played two seasons under his brother Greg's lead, split by two seasons when he again captained the Australians in World Series Cricket. He was younger and he was in form and he is the only one of 43 captains to do so. Kim Hughes tried but left after four innings netted him 2 runs.

Given his form over the past two years, his easily inflamed temperament and the destabilisation that can only occur by having him in the side, why continue with him as a player? If reputation was enough, Greg Chappell would still be playing!

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