The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Stop complaining about pitches, Ponting tells his batsmen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 05, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Stop complaining about pitches, Ponting tells his batsmen

DARWIN, JULY 4. Ricky Ponting returned to the Australian cricket side on Sunday and told his batsmen to stop complaining about suspect pitches and become more adaptable to difficult conditions.

Captain Ponting rejoined his team after missing the first Test against Sri Lanka in Darwin to be with his family following the death of his aunt. The second Test begins on Friday in Cairns.

Speaking after Australia's 149-run win inside three days on Saturday, Ponting said the low-scoring first Test — for which a seaming pitch was blamed — could be a reflection of the fact that batsmen had been given an easy time lately.

``There's no doubt we were spoiled last year,'' Ponting said. ``Last summer (the pitches) were as flat as I've seen in Australia. The West Indies last year was exactly the same.

``You don't want drawn Tests and batsmen dominating the ball as much as they did last summer. Better cricket wickets will make it a better spectacle for the fans and more enjoyable to play,'' he added.

While Marrara Oval may have tilted the balance too far in the bowlers' direction — 40 wickets fell in 2-1/2 days — Ponting said some players had lost the art of making what his predecessor Steve Waugh called the ``ugly 100'' in difficult conditions.

``We do need players who can adapt and play to different conditions,'' Ponting said. ``To be fair, our batsmen have been able to do that fairly well.

``If you look what we've done over the last few years, we've played well in the subcontinent, we've played well everywhere, so that means we can adjust to different conditions.''

Ponting also said Shane Warne deserves cricket's wicket-taking world record, but says conditions in Cairns may be against him. Warne needs eight wickets in the second Test to overtake Muttiah Muralitharan as the leading wicket-taker. Muralitharan, who is missing this series for personal reasons, has 527 wickets to Warne's 520 after the Australian leg-spinner took three wickets in the first Test in Darwin.

Warne has already admitted this series might be his only chance to overtake Muralitharan.

``It would be a shame if it gets to the stage where he doesn't hold the record at all because I think he really deserves to have at least held it for a certain amount of time,'' Ponting said of Warne. ``Last time we played in Cairns it wasn't really a spinner's wicket ... it's a bit more like a Brisbane wicket,'' he said. ``In saying that, Warney's always loved bowling in Brisbane.'' — AP

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