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Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting

Net Worth

$65,000,000

Born in (City)

Launceston, Tasmania

Born in (Country)

Australia

Date of Birth

19th December, 1974

Date of Death

-

Mother

Lorraine Ponting

Father

Graeme Ponting

Children

  • Emmy Charlotte Ponting , Matisse Ellie Ponting ,Fletcher William Ponting

About

Ricky Thomas Ponting is an Australian cricket coach, commentator, and former cricketer. He is considered the most successful captain in international cricket history, with 220 victories in 324 matches with a winning ratio of 67.91%. Ponting was captain of the Australian national team during its ‘golden era’; between 2004 and 2011 in Tests and 2002 and 2011 in One Day Internationals (ODIs). He is a specialist right-handed batsman, an excellent slip / close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He was named "Cricketer of the Decade 2000". He represented the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket, the Hobart Hurricanes in Australia’s domestic T20 competition the Big Bash League, and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the modern era, alongside Sachin Tendulkar of India and Brian Lara of the West Indies. On 1 December 2006, he reached the highest rating achieved by a Test batsman for 50 years, though this was surpassed by Steve Smith in December 2017. He stands second in the List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored behind Sachin Tendulkar. Ponting is the current assistant coach of the Australian national men’s cricket team, having been appointed to the role in February 2019. When not doing such assignments, he works as a TV commentator and is a delight to listen to.

Early Life

Born in Launceston, Tasmania on 19 December 1974, Ricky Ponting is the eldest of Graeme and Lorraine Ponting’s four children. Graeme was "a good club cricketer" and played Australian rules football, while Lorraine was a state vigoro champion. His uncle Greg Campbell played Test cricket for Australia in 1989 and 1990. Ponting’s parents first lived in Prospect 4.1 km (2.5 mi) south of city centre; however, they moved into the working-class area of Newnham, 6 km (3.7 mi) north of central Launceston. After marrying his long-time girlfriend, law student Rianna Cantor, in June 2002, Ponting credited her as the reason for his increased maturity. The couple have three children born between 2008 and 2014. A young and raw Ricky Ponting burst into the international arena in 1995 as he debuted in both the formats. He had garnered a big reputation in the domestic circuit for having the ability to produce the big runs and most people were in awe of his skill set.

Road to Success

Having started out as a middle order batsman, he also started to take ownership of the pivotal number three slot which he would make iconic in the years to follow. Ricky Ponting had all the ingredients of a typical Australian - tough as nails, aggressive, vocal and above all, mentally powerful to tackle pressure situations. The best quality about Ponting was his burning desire to win matches and at times. Three World Cup titles including two consecutive ones as captain to go with a couple of Champions Trophy titles and the no.1 Test ranking shows that he had seen it all in the international arena. A highlight of Ponting’s batting was the sheer intent he had, right from the first ball. It wouldn’t necessarily be an aerial shot, would just be that positive trigger movement forward and he didn’t mind playing the pull/hook shot even off the front foot with incredible ease. In fact, that stroke went onto become Ponting’s signature shot in his career. He rarely let the bowlers to dictate terms and most of the times, bullied them into submission. His upward spike as a batsman meant that the leadership role wasn’t far away. With Steve Waugh declining, captaincy finally came to Ponting in 2002 when he was at the peak of his powers as a batsman. Over the next 5 years, not only did he as a captain win consecutive World Cups and Champions Trophy titles, but also went up to another level as a batsman. From 2002-2007, Ponting smashed an insane 41 international centuries across formats - testimony of the dominance he had over the bowlers. Apart from the limited-overs glory, Australia were also ruthless in Tests, carrying forward the legacy created by Steve Waugh. However, it wasn’t all rosy for Ricky, especially in the longest format where the pain of losing the Ashes series happened to him thrice. It wasn’t hard to understand the fact that he enjoyed captaining in the shorter format more as his creativity worked well in white-ball cricket whereas in Tests, his tactics were mostly revolving around the starry bowling attack. Once the senior bowlers left, Ponting started to feel the heat and although the story was similar in ODIs, he had a better grip over proceedings. Nevertheless, Ponting’s contributions are invaluable to Australian cricket and he remains the second best batsman ever produced by the country after the Don. Apart from the several silverware that we won, there were a plethora of records that he created which may be tough if not impossible to break. After a fairly prolonged patchy run of form, Ponting announced that the Perth Test against South Africa in November-December 2012 would be his last international match. At the time of his retirement, Ponting was only second to Sachin Tendulkar in terms of total international runs and centuries. A true legend of the game. MI won their first ever IPL trophy and Ponting coached them to their second one in 2015.

Challenges

1.The desperation did bring up infamous incidents but what shone through his career was the sheer desire to be victorious. 2.Disciplinary issues were equally prevalent with Ricky back then and it did hound him in the initial years of his international career as well. But, he managed to pick himself up and from the 1998-99 season, started to mature steadily into a top flight batsman. 3.After a few torrid years with KKR, he shifted to MI where he even opened with Tendulkar - a rare feast for cricket lovers. However, Ponting soon realized that he wasn’t adjusting well enough to the format and gave up captaincy to become a mentor of the side.

Failures

1.The only title that eluded him was the World T20 but one could argue that the format came around the time that Ponting was in his final years. 2.After the 2011 World Cup where Australia were eliminated in the quarterfinal, Ponting stood down from leadership and Michael Clarke was thrust to the role for all formats. ‘Punter’ as he is fondly called, barely played any games after giving up captaincy and bid farewell to international cricket in the 2012-13 home series against South Africa. His last year for Australia was fidgety, as is the case with most ageing players and hence, wasn’t able to end on a high. 3.Ricky even played a part in the IPL although not much with much individual success. 4.He is the only Australian Test captain to have led his side to three separate Ashes series defeats

Achievements

led Australia to their second ever 5-0 Ashes win as well as victory at the 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cups and was also a member of the 1999 World Cup winning team under Steve Waugh.|He also led Australia to ICC Champions Trophy victory twice in a row, in 2006 and 2009.|He is one of only four players (along with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis) in history to have scored 13,000 Test runs.|Statistically, he is one of the most successful Test captains of all time, with 48 victories in 77 Tests between 2004 and 31 December 2010.|As a player, Ponting is the only cricketer in history to be involved in 100 Test victories.|holds the record to have been involved in the most ODI victories as a player, with 262 wins.

Quotes

  • I was always fiercely determined and driven to succeed.
  • It's nice to put your hand up and do the big things the team requires of you.
  • I want to be a dad, first and foremost. I want to be a good father. I've spent so much of my life on the move and travelling around the world that just to set up a home for my family and be a good dad is something that motivates me.
  • Every decision you make in life, not just on the sporting field - a lot of time and energy goes into it. You think things through before you make decisions and you always think the decision you make at the time is going to be the right one.