There seems to be a bit of a story developing over in Australia with ‘good old Punter’ coming in for some stick over his captaincy. Every Aussie blog I visit seems to have contributors calling for Ricky to go and Geoff Lawson has been very vocal in calling for his head too.
I can’t see any logic in this. How could removing Ponting at this stage really improve Australia’s chances of winning back the Ashes?
This is one of those issues where people seem to be calling for change, just for the sake of change.
In these situations as a fan, I would always ask myself ‘What would the opposition prefer us to do?’
Personally, I believe that Andrew Strauss would be far more confident if Michael Clarke is captain when the two teams line up for the 1st test next month. Imagine the upheaval in Australia’s ranks if Ponting was forced out or releaved of his duties now, England would be loving it.
Ponting is also a far more intimidating captain to face up against. The sight of him at the toss will tell Andrew Strauss and England that they are in a real match, on top of that he is still one of the best batsmen in the world.
As daft as it sounds given all his cricket experience, but Ponting could still be learning his trade as a skipper. For years with Warne, Gilchrist, McGrath, etc in the team, the side almost ran itself and Ponting didn’t need to do much in the art of captaincy.
With the side he is now left with, Ponting more so, has to call the shots. Ok, so he is not the finished article, as Andrew Strauss isn’t either, but they are still both the best men for the jobs.
It’s not strange for that kind of rubbish talk to be going on in England either. A similar amount of crap came from the mouths of Darren Gough and Derek Pringle just over a month ago when they claimed that Andrew Strauss shouldn’t even be in the 50 over team.
There reason, because he won’t be any good on the sub-continent for the world cup. As is usually the case, they haven’t looked at the bigger picture.
Were they truely advocating that England should remove Strauss from the 50 over captaincy just 2 months before the start of the Ashes? That now we have a settled side in all formats of the game, that we should drop the 50 over captain and disrupt the whole balance and unity of the side?
Brains of Britain those two. Aren’t we just glad they are both journalists and not selectors?
I know that Alec Stewart was present for that TV debate. The reason why I didn’t include him in my criticism is because it was more the other two who were making the case for removing Strauss. Although I have to say Stewart didn’t do much to argue against them, so maybe he is just as bad/stupid.
