Ricky Ponting's Chip

I refer to the rather ostentatious mold of anti-matter that resides on his shoulder. If he has not done enough damage to his tattered reputation by being regularly disciplined by match referees for on-field irregularities and gesturing towards and shoving Federal Ministers off it, the Australian Captain has now resorted to taking pot-shots at Sunil Gavaskar.

In what can only be described as the pathetic venting of a long-held angst against the former world record holder, Ponting has again proven that Cricket Australia has forever cheapened the institution that is the post of Australian Captain by appointing him to it.

Insipidness and a dearth of real leadership qualities have characterised Ponting's captaincy and led to his charges looking and feeling lost when the pressure is unexpectedly applied to them. This lack of ability to think on his feet has tarnished his legacy as a cricketer and was quite evident when he was quizzed on the topic of Gavaskar airing his views on Australia's recent demise as the unchallenged occupiers of Mount Cricket's summit.

This Cricinfo article accurately points out Gavaskar's propensity to lambast the Australians for their many on and off field transgressions. When asked for his immature views on Gavaskar's latest comments, Ponting blurted:

"Have a look at how many Test matches they [India] have won. He [Gavaskar] has been a big part of that, he has been a selector and he has been on the coaching committee. They might want to start to look at the way they play their own cricket rather than looking at us."

It baffles me as to how Cricket Australia could appoint a man as its captain when he clearly does not have the intellect, nor the skill, to represent his country like a real statesman should. At the very least, Ponting should not have fabricated facts and made dubious links between the subject and an uninvolved institution.

The only selecting that Gavaskar has performed in recent times has been of the ICC World XI for the disgrace that was the Johnny Walker Super Series, and if you really want to stretch it, he was a member of the committee that interviewed and recommended Greg Chappell for the post of Indian Coach. In short, the only interest Gavaskar has in Indian cricket is purely an emotional one and as a commentator and columnist.

Furthermore, at no time, whilst criticising Australia's ways has Gavaskar compared them to the current Indian team.

It is blatantly obvious that Ponting has either no sense of the world around him - the same world that has been his life for the last decade - or he has willingly and deliberately employed his limited creativity to insinuate titles and linkages that clearly do not, and probably have never existed.

Cricket Australia would not have sent its team to the Caribbean without a Media Manager. It should now hurriedly shoot an email to its daft captain advising him to desist from any further public displays of ineptitude, instead deferring all questions to the said professional.

One wonders of the length of time it will take for Ponting to reduce the aura of the title of Australian Captain to the rubble that epitomised the Pakistani Captaincy in the days of W Akram, W Younis, R Latif and M Khan.

God have mercy on the legacy of Bradman, Border, Taylor and Waugh.