With Australia suffering a humiliating 3-1 Ashes loss at the hands of England, Ricky Ponting’s time could finally be up. He may have been nursing his injured little finger as the last rites were administered at the SCG but, as Australia survey the debris of their Ashes defeat, all eyes will inevitably draw a bead on their vanquished captain Ricky Ponting.
As the only remaining link to their last great side, Ponting has always shouldered an unreasonable amount of attention from the cricketing public - both at home and abroad. Opposition teams look at the transitional side he leads and mark him out as the number-one target. Australia’s players and fans look to him as a figurehead; a reminder of their seemingly faltering ability to churn out so-called ‘once in a generation’ players several times a generation.
Now, with the Ashes again evading his grasp, the questions over his future are more real and more pressing than ever before. The issue is a thorny one for the powers that be. Two principles are at stake and on the surface, neither one seems negotiable. The first is that with their side as bereft of world-class talent as it has been since the late 1980s, they would be loathe to dispense with a player who, despite his recent struggles, can rightly be described as their best batsman by a distance.
The second is that Ponting has now allowed an opposition England captain to lift the Ashes urn three times. Once may be considered an accident. Twice may go down as careless. But three times in this great rivalry will surely be chalked down as a gross dereliction of duty Down Under. Players as talented and distinguished as Alec Stewart, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain were frequently described as being mentally scarred by their Ashes experiences, and it was not until a comparatively young and unscathed side was put together under Michael Vaughan’s stewardship that England ended an indecently long barren run against the Baggy Greens in 2005.
If anyone can now be said to be scarred by the recent exchanges between the old enemies, it is Ponting. In addition to the facial injuries he sustained in 2009, there is now a history of failure in this iconic series that must surely weigh heavy on his mind. From the famous blow-out five years ago when he was run out by unknown 12th man Gary Pratt and stomped from the field directing a tirade of abuse at the England balcony, to his latest unedifying spat with Aleem Dar in Melbourne - captaining in the Ashes seems to take him to the brink.
All of which seemed less important when he was batting like the champion he has earned the right to be remembered as. This series has created new cracks in his leadership, though. Ponting has never been a tactical innovator or a motivator in the field but, as captain, he has often inspired others through his exploits at the crease. Sometimes classy, sometimes brutal, sometimes belligerent, often all three at once.
Now, after undergoing a subtle decline over the last 12-18 months, the 36-year-old has come unstuck in remarkable fashion when his runs were needed most. A breezy fifty in a dead session at Brisbane aside, he has been a skittish presence at the crease, falling to a mixture of fine deliveries and uncharacteristic prods and pushes.
Even at Perth, where his side recorded a big win, he mustered just 13 runs across two innings, while his conquerors at the MCG were Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan, two bowlers who started the series outside England’s first-choice XI.
Michael Clarke, his long-time deputy and heir apparent, does not appear to enjoy the universal support his position in the side once appeared to command, but there are other candidates and now may be the time for bold choices. One available option is to relieve Ponting of the captaincy but keep him in the side and encourage him to play with the freedom that captains cannot. As has been observed in many quarters, though, it is not considered the Australian way for deposed skippers to soldier on.
Then again, for the best part of 20 years, losing was not considered the Australian way either. Maybe the time has come for a change of approach.
