Of Ponting and Player of the decade…

That Ponting was the best batsman of the decade is not even debatable, it’s obvious. That he went onto become the most successful captain ever was destiny. He produced one of the finest innings played in ODI cricket in the final of the 2003 WC and one of the finest back to the wall fighting innings in the 2005 Ashes too. He only enhanced his reputation as one of the greatest all round fielders in the last decade. So, clearly he seemed to be the overwhelming favorite (despite losing two ashes as a captain) considering all that he has achieved in the last 10 years. But here is the thing – Is a player of the decade merely the possessor of the best record during that time period? Isn’t it meant to be more than churning out runs and taking a heap of wickets? Isn’t he meant to redefine certain aspects of the game or to tower above the rest in projecting the game in its best lights, be a great custodian of the game? If assuming McEnroe had as good a record or even slightly a better record than Federer, would he be rated as the greatest of all time ahead of Federer - I am not so sure. Well, I think he won’t be.

If those extra factors count, then Ponting has fallen way too short of deserving this title. Anyone with the slightest of sense of diplomacy would have done a much better job of damage control during the Sydneygate episode – the street fighter in him came to the fore during that whole affair. He just didn’t get what was wrong with the whole issue. That claiming of a bumped catch against Dhoni in the same series from someone who was persuading all the teams around the world to agree to take the fielders’ word for close catches was either dumb or cheap. His behavior at the press conference that day was imperialistic. His barking at Srinath who was apologizing for hurting him with a bouncer in a test match is a shot from pre-civilized world. His pointing the bat and accusing of Duncan Fletcher after he was run out by a substitute in the Ashes was rather amusing. His barbs at calling Lara selfish after he scored 400 to snatch the record back from Hayden were ungracious. His gesture to Sharad Pawar to handover the trophy quickly and move away from the podium during the Champions Trophy was not just cultural insensitivity but plain indecency & lack of civility by any culture’s standards. His constant inquiry with the umpires is worse than schoolboy stuff – apparently they behave better these days. Oh...the list goes on, let me stop here.

For all this, I wouldn’t still have a problem if he doesn’t have a pretence to be a saint. That’s where I have real problem. He keeps reiterating that he and his team plays perfectly within the spirit of the game – whatever that means. The Australian team under Waugh and later (&more so) under Ponting have been as bad ambassadors of Cricket as any game can ever have. But then there is another branch of philosophy . Should a great player be necessarily a great ambassador of the game – yes, we all wish so but is that necessary? Aren’t we asking too much of our sportspersons and other celebrities than we ask of ourselves? Well, these debates have been done to death for centuries with no clear answers. Maradona was not a saint and so was Schumacher (just to name 2) but don’t we all celebrate them? If we come across a Federer or a Tendulkar let’s just be extra grateful to them and move on rather than setting them as benchmarks and judging others by it.

Personally I alternate between both the philosophies! So when I think a great player has also to be a great representative of the game (which is the mood I am in right now!), I don’t think Ponting deserves the title one bit and when I am in a contrarian philosophy mood, I think Ponting deserves the title of “Player of the decade” (i.e, as an objective observer, personally I would have gone for one of Gilly, Mcgrath or Dravid) but again not by a such a huge margin. More on that in the next post.