Sport

Ponting’s chanceless performance

Ricky Ponting’s hundred in the first Test of the 2009 Ashes campaign counted amongst the impressive of his career.

From the moment he took guard, with his team in trouble and England pressing, the Australian captain was on top of his game. It was a chanceless, remorseless performance and a study of mature greatness.

It was the sort of innings to expect from an older batsman prepared to apply his experience and willing to reject the joyous but sometimes reckless cries of youth. It was the type of innings Sachin Tendulkar these days seeks to construct.

In his younger days Ponting was a fearless hooker. Any fast bowler sending one around his ears knew he’d accept the invitation. He faced the last of the feared West Indian speedsters and looked them in the eye. Before long he was pushed up to first wicket down, a position long regarded in his neck of the woods as belonging to an aggressive as opposed to consolidating player.

Hereabouts he was an old fashioned Australian batsman, quick of eye and foot, daring of shot selection, unprepared to take a backward step.

Of course he had his ups and downs. What else happens in youth? It is a period of heat and imagination, a time of discovery. Only those brave enough to explore their outer boundaries ever know the extent of their abilities.

It was the same off the field. Suffice it to say that Ponting did not survive on a diet of lassi and bridge. It is not reasonable to expect an intrepid batsman to spend his evenings watching episodes of Friends. Far too much fuss is made of adolescent misadventures. Ponting’s spirit was hot and it showed, in his batting and elsewhere. Youth does not always think before it acts.

But he grew up, and that too, was expressed at the crease. As time passed he became more patient, put a higher price on his wicket. Youth thinks it is immortal, adults know that things are fragile. Moreover expectations change.

Failure is tolerated in younger sportsmen because everyone is excited about their emergence. Success is expected from seniors. Besides, footwork slows as the years go by, and the eye loses its lustre. The odds change.

In Cardiff, Ponting was content to push the spinners around. The ball was not coming onto the bat and lofted drives were risky. Moreover the Australians had been losing wickets trying to cart the slower bowlers.

Paul Harris, especially, had teased them to their doom. Putting aside instinct, applying team policy, Ponting placed the ball into gaps or else leant back to cut. Otherwise he dropped the ball at his toes. Against the speedsters, the Australian concentrated on defensive, moving forwards with a long stride and presenting a broad bat.

Now and then he pulled but the shot was played along the ground. Occasionally he drove through cover. Mostly he set about crushing hope.

Some might regret the passing of the brilliant, coruscating batsman of yesteryear. But a particular satisfaction lies in watching an abrasive young batsman mature into an adult capable of constructing a flawless innings.

Ponting and Tendulkar may not any longer make us gasp but they provide control and excellence. Only fools deny them the chance to grow up.

Let children retain their Peter Pans. Meanwhile the rest of us can watch an emerging cricketer pass through the various stages, survive the numerous pitfalls, till finally mastery is attained by a precious few. Of all the periods of a sportsman’s life it is the most satisfying.

But it does not last. Nothing lasts in sport. It is just another phase; that’s the devil of it. Before long the inexorable slide begins.

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