Ricky Ponting calls it a day....

booth70

Another one bites the dust

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-south-africa-2012/content/current/story/594213.html

Great cricketer....I hope he makes a hundred in his last test:)

swimming in a sea

Seems like someone had a word in his ear, since he definitely wanted to go to England again and a shame he will miss the Tasmania Test.

decies

Thanks for the memories Ricky

kryogen

The plaudits and tributes coming in from the biggest names in cricket speak for themselves, my all time favorite player. Thanks for the memories punter, one of the best to ever pick up a bat. A leader, a warrior, a batsman of supreme skill. You will be missed

dfx-

A lot of players seem to retire around South African tours...Hussein (?), Vaughan, Strauss, Pietersen (nearly), Ponting, Haydn..

When are India playing SA next

TheDrog

I was never a fan of Ponting as a person but he was a superb player. he should have made this decision a while ago though

booth70

TheDrog wrote: »

I was never a fan of Ponting as a person but he was a superb player. he should have made this decision a while ago though

Agree

He holds a record unlikely to be ever broken......a hundred in each innings of his 100 th test;)

Football Gambler

Hussain quit as Captain during a SA series, it was after a century against New Zealand that Nasser called it a day, think it was same match as Andrew Strauss made his debut in. It was certainly the same match he ran Strauss out in, when Strauss was in site of a century.

Football Gambler

I was at Edgbaston in 2009 when he walked out to bat and (literally) got booed off the park, I'd like to think it was more pantomime booing.... personally I was happy to see one of the world's best batsmen ever, batting live in the flesh.

As one of the contributors on here said, maybe someone had a word in his ear, as he hasn't been contributing. Although I think Ponting would know himself, and he is the sort of bloke who would put the team before himself. Shame he's going, but no point in carrying on and maybe embarrassing himself.

djimi

Thing about Ponting is that Australia are going through a rebuild process, and they need to be looking to blood the next generation of cricketers coming through. They dont need a guy like Ponting hanging around just for the sake of him prolonging his career, especially if he is not contributing to the team. He has been a wonderful player, one of the best that any of us will ever see, but the time had definately come for him to step aside and let the next generation come through. It could be argued that perhaps the time to call it a day came when he resigned from the captaincy, but I guess the double hundred in January might have something to say about that!!!

soccerbreaker

Good luck Pointing.......

Football Gambler

djimi wrote: »

Thing about Ponting is that Australia are going through a rebuild process, and they need to be looking to blood the next generation of cricketers coming through. They dont need a guy like Ponting hanging around just for the sake of him prolonging his career, especially if he is not contributing to the team. He has been a wonderful player, one of the best that any of us will ever see, but the time had definately come for him to step aside and let the next generation come through. It could be argued that perhaps the time to call it a day came when he resigned from the captaincy, but I guess the double hundred in January might have something to say about that!!!

Pretty much agree with all that......

I know it would have been very harsh, but there was probably an argument for leaving him out of the 3rd Test, but at the same time I don't think it would have gone down well with the team given Michael Clarke's reaction to him retiring in the recent press conference, get the feeling there would have been a mutiny if he'd have been dropped.

I'd say in the Australian era of about 8-10 years back, he would have got dropped, like what happened to one of the Waugh's (think it was Mark), when Allan Border had to leave the selectors meeting as he couldn't stomach the thought of dropping him.... but that was when Australia were that competitive that no sentiment was shown to anyone.