Ponting labels Joe Root's suggestion to extend play as 'ridiculous'

Australia legend Ricky Ponting has labelled as ridiculous suggestions by former England captain Joe Root to help combat bad weather and slow overrates by extending Test sessions into the eveningThats a ridiculous thing to say said Ponting adding that it is not within the current laws of cricketRoot has suggested after Manchesters fickle weather cost England any chance of levelling a riveting Ashes series at 22 when the recent fourth Test at Old Trafford petered out to a tame draw Root was left frustrated at the circumstances surrounding the finish of the match that saw the entire final day washed outAlso ReadCricket quite the gentlemanrsquos gameWith slow overrates turning out to be an issue at the Test level and weather too forcing further interruptions like it did in Old Trafford and Queens Park Oval in the West Indies v India second Test Root questioned why more wasnrsquot done to prevent overs being lost when speaking to BBC TMS after the fourth Test the ICC said in a report on its websiteldquoIt doesnrsquot get dark here in England until 10 pm in the summer why canrsquot we just play until we bowl the oversrdquo asked Root during the Manchester TestldquoTherersquos been a lot of chat about not bowling the overs There are so many different ways of trying to find opportunities to get as much play in as possible At every opportunity at every stage you should be looking to find ways to get the Test on We batted in worse conditions at Edgbaston but that is cricket You just want consistency in those conditionsrdquo he saidPonting discussed Roots comments with host Sanjana Ganesan on the latest episode of The ICC Review and the Australia legend was clear with his assessment of themldquoYou cant just choose to change the laws of the game whenever you want tordquo Ponting said ldquoIm sure there have been times when England have wanted to not get back out there and play themselves I mean thats just a ridiculous thing to sayStuart Broad meanwhile wrote in his column in the Daily Mail that it would be ldquounjust if the weather had a decisive sayrdquo ahead of the final dayrsquos playEngland had dominated three days of play at Old Trafford to make a strong statement and were in with a strong chance to level the series had the weather not interrupted proceedingsAfter asking Australia to bat first England bowled them out for 317 before building a massive lead on the back of some positive batting To then have Australia five down before they took a lead made England favourites to win the Test before rain played spoilsportWeather too played its role in Port of Spain as India had set West Indies 366 to win and reduced them to 762 in their second innings However rain disrupted play on the fourth and fifth days of the match thus depriving India of a chance to force victoryThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever