Sport - Cricket

Concentrate on Windies series, says Ponting

Melbourne: Fresh from his arrival from the DLF-Indian Premier League (IPL), the Australian cricket captain, Ricky Ponting, now wants his countrymen to switch from the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament to their National team’s Test series against the West Indies starting on May 22.

With a battle for TV ratings expected between IPL and the Test series in the coming days, Ponting has urged the Australians to watch their current stars than the retired greats in the IPL which is being shown on free-to-air and in a similar time slot.

“I’d like to think that most people in Australia will be watching their National team represent their country over a couple of the other guys — retired guys most of them now — representing an Indian franchise,” Ponting was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.

“I know if I was sitting back in my lounge room, being the cricket traditionalist I am, I would certainly be watching Test cricket over the IPL,” Ponting, who had an ordinary outing in the IPL playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders, said.

Ponting said the Caribbean tour would be ideal to escape the strain of a turbulent Australian summer against India, which was marred by on-field clashes and crowd flare-ups.

“Everything to do with last summer is long behind us now, it’s up to all of us to move on and get on with things and trying to find ways of making myself a better player and the team a better team,” Ponting said.

He said the challenge of leading a ‘fresh’ Australian team had given him the confidence and determination to arrest his own rare batting slump.

“Last year for me was a little bit different than what I’ve been used to for the last 6-7 years. It was one of those years where I had a few high moments, but the majority of it were pretty low scores.” — PTI

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