27 March,2011 07:51 AM IST | | Ian Chappell
There comes a time when the players have heard all the rallying speeches and they go in one ear and out the other; a time when it's right for a different captain to lead a new team
There comes a time in every cricket captain's career - make that every sporting, political or business leader - when he reaches his use by date. Ricky Ponting's captaincy, despite a typically defiant, I'll bloody show you, century in the World Cup quarter-final, has reached that stage.
Australia skipper Ricky Ponting |
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It's no good giving the captaincy to a player who is past his playing prime, as this doesn't allow him to do justice to the job. The timing is right for Clarke to take over and there were signs during the ODI series with England that he'll at least have a more positive influence on young spinners than Ponting.u00a0u00a0
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Make no mistake, Ponting has been a good captain; a Test winning percentage in excess of 60 and two World Cups without a defeat is a record of which anyone can be proud.
And he's achieved all that by overcoming the largest turnover of top-class players of any Australian captain and still managing to win at an above average rate.u00a0
Ponting may not be a leader who is universally loved but that is what defines him as a cricketer; he doesn't do things for effect. There's only ever been one motivation behind Ponting's cricket; the only logical one - to win the match.
In the end many leaders succumb to power and stay on too long; it's like a drug and they have to have more. There are signs that Ponting has had a whiff of the drug but hopefully, he emulates Bill Clinton who said; "I didn't inhale".
Ponting's magnificent fighting century and on-field courage in the losing World Cup quarter-final left an image of a beaten and bloodied warrior but one who hadn't been bowed. Next to going out a winner, that's the best way to finish a successful reign.