So just how bad is Ricky Ponting's captaincy?

He worries, he frowns, he looks anything but calm, he waves his hands, he chews his gum with increasing speed, he has a conference with his bowler every over.....Basically, the man can't stay composed when under the cosh as a captain. We saw it in the 2005 Ashes, and we're seeing it again now. I'm not sure he's the right guy to be leading a young and inexperienced side. His whole career, he's been surrounded by success, and now that he doesn't have it, he looks like an anguished fish out of water.

Hussey or Clarke are the men to lead Aus now, imo. Ponting can give them runs still, but he's a shit captain at a time when Aus needs a sympathetic, calm, composed, and above all tactically aware captain more than ever.

Or maybe Spanky had it right- Katich might be the man.

Henry wrote:Or maybe Spanky had it right- Katich might be the man.

don't about captaincy, don't know about batting, don't know about fielding BUT he has been by far their best spinner.

I don't rate this thread title nearly as highly as a similar one a few weeks ago; was something like "Just How Stupid is Ricky Ponting?"

It has a good ring to it.

I'm not sure why there is any reason to think Ponting would be a good captain given his known "deficiencies."

Most captains have to think, often a great deal about strategy, tactics and the best utilisation of their players. This is because almost all other teams are far from perfect and are often reasonably evenly matched with the opposition.

For decades Oz has been a near perfect team and the consistency with which they maintained this is astonishing. It had more than its fair share of exceptional players. As such, in many respects, it ran itself. McG and Warne new exactly what to do and how to do it. The back-up wasn't bad either and when Blee had an off day the 2 TGMs could paper over. thus his captaincy has been carried by an exceptional team.

England did definitely peak in 2005 such that they were on a level with Oz. It made for thrilling cricket, but exposed Ponting's huge shortcomings in certain areas when the need to think, have a plan B and C etc were required. He was clueless.

Currently it would seem that Oz are barely equal to a now rampant Indian team and his limitations are again exposed. It may be that with the resources at his disposal any captain would be more limited; but you would expect some to be a bit more creative or at least more composed.

So Shane Warne is still out best spinner AND captain despite being retired for 2 years.


To be fair to Ponting, the selectors have hardly helped him on this tour.

JGK wrote:So Shane Warne is still out best spinner AND captain despite being retired for 2 years.


To be fair to Ponting, the selectors have hardly helped him on this tour.

True but take this for example while Watto was bowling he removed first slip and the next ball dollied off bat pad to first slip. He brings sweepers in to Laxman on the last ball of an over and bingo another four where the sweeper was.

He brings Watson and Katich on late in the day and three wickets go down after overbowling his three and a half bowlers all day.

I could go on like how much pressure has he placed on the run out? One shy at the stumps all day.

JGK wrote:So Shane Warne is still out best spinner AND captain despite being retired for 2 years.


To be fair to Ponting, the selectors have hardly helped him on this tour.

But it took him 2 1/2 tests to realise that Katich is his best spin bowler on this tour.

At least he has found a way to replenish his hair loss that the captaincy worries/pressures might be stripping off.

Henry wrote:

JGK wrote:So Shane Warne is still out best spinner AND captain despite being retired for 2 years.


To be fair to Ponting, the selectors have hardly helped him on this tour.

But it took him 2 1/2 tests to realise that Katich is his best spin bowler on this tour.

But he didn't realise it Trev. Not untill Katich was the last pin wobbling did he bring him on.

When Ponting first took over the captaincy he was a poor skipper in both good times and bad.

He's improved enough to be a decent skipper in good times, but is still woeful when things don't run like clockwork.

I don't blame Ponting for Australia's poor play this series. Australia are notoriously crap in India. Our bowlers have struggled on flat decks and our batsmen failed in the second test.

I don't think the scoreboard would look much different if say, Mark Taylor or Mike Brearley were captaining this side.

But I think we'd feel a lot more confident about Australia's chances, we'd be more proud of the players efforts and we'd be watching a much more interesting match.

In 1998 Australia got thrashed at Eden Gardens in Calcutta. It was ugly. The bowling attack consisted of Kasprowicz, Wilson, Robertson and an injured Warne. India piled on the runs but Taylor kept trying things. He made good use of Mark Waugh and Greg Blewett. He still kept attacking from time to time, setting fields that encouraged Robertson, Warne and Waugh to give the ball a bit of flight.

Nothing he did made a difference but you knew he had a clue. Ponting doesn't.

Taylor was so much more attacking in his approach even if things didn't go his way. I've not seen him being defensive once.

Without a doubt, Aus's best captain since AB.

Taylor was a better captain than AB who was not a natural thinker about the game but overcame that with general nuggety grouseness. Taylor is the best captain since Chappelli (if not our best ever).

But Taylor had better players at his disposal than AB who made utmost use of his resources.

JGK wrote:Taylor was a better captain than AB who was not a natural thinker about the game but overcame that with general nuggety grouseness. Taylor is the best captain since Chappelli (if not our best ever).

I was going to say the same JGK. Taylor's definitely the best since Ian Chappell and probably the best since Benaud.

He'd definitely rate a strong mention in any debate on the best Australian skippers in test history.

From various readings I have done (and from what I have seen) the order might be something like:

Chappelli
Benaud
Taylor
Bradman
Armstrong


as the top tier with

AB
Waugh
Woodfull

below them.

Always hard to judge of course given that as SG says, diff captains have different assets. On Chappelli, McGilvray was quite adamant that he was the best Aust captain ever.


The great regret is that Warne or Miller never captained the side.

JGK wrote:Taylor was a better captain than AB who was not a natural thinker about the game but overcame that with general nuggety grouseness. Taylor is the best captain since Chappelli (if not our best ever).

Benaud?

Taylor in my time by a country mile.

Chappelli has the reputation for being attacking and not afraid to try himself even as a bowler.

taipan wrote:

JGK wrote:Taylor was a better captain than AB who was not a natural thinker about the game but overcame that with general nuggety grouseness. Taylor is the best captain since Chappelli (if not our best ever).

Benaud?

Bradman, Richie, Chappelli, Taylor and Waugh were like minded in that recording a loss in an attempt at a win was a better outcome than merely not losing.

I don't believe that of Bradman.