There appears no end to the foolishness which parades as Ricky Ponting's arrogance. It really can be the only conclusion to be drawn from the press conference held at the SCG this morning.
With only twelve hours to think about the consequences, Ponting sat down and started with a grin and no statement. With a room full of media waiting on the word, they instead got no presentation, no statement, no log of complaints or reluctant resignation. Just the man with a growing number of "formers" in front of his name sitting and staring back. Proceedings had to be started with an embarrassed question from a reporter asking Ponting to explain to the gathering what he wanted to say.
So he is staying in the Test side and he hasn't retired from one day cricket. He has been sacked and told he is not wanted in ODI's. He won't use the word retire, let alone perform the act. Ponting says he will know when the time to officially retire from all cricket has come but his record is that he won't. John Inverarity has had to sack him from the one day side and he'll have to do the same next summer from Tests. Ponting says he hopes it won't have a sad end but he intends playing until he can't. He doesn't mind is he keeps trying until he fails. He says he didn't see the axe falling or even in the selectors hands, despite claims by Inverarity's that they had an arrangement.
At one stage Ponting asked the assembled media, "I bet you all thought I called you here to announce my retirement. Sorry to disappoint you." This, another game from a man who likes to win.
A lot more could be said, some of it patriotically talking about Australia marching forward but the realities are something different. Three Tests in April in the Caribbean and then a long, long break until November. South Africa and Sri Lanka will see him off. He won't make it to England in his 39th year and if he does, Simon Katich should sue Cricket Australia.
James Sutherland, when he had his turn, talked in such indefinite terms about Ponting's future cricket such as "I just hope for him" and in reference to his playing future "how ever long it goes from here." When he talked on Ponting's past he was full of praise and decisive. It was a distinction which was obvious and underlies quotes issued on Michael Clarke's behalf yesterday - hoping Ponting plays on in Tests - as being about team building whether Ponting leaves or goes. Despite being part of the selection team which rightly axed Ponting, he had to be distanced from the push. Much has changed within CA but not the tissue thin spin. Only children and men with beer boxes on their heads are that gullible.
Among the former players, Ponting's former captain Steve Waugh, had suggested that retirement now would be the smart option. The chance to go out as a winner was irresistible for champions and this was Ponting's chance. Matthew Hayden tweeted a spray against the selectors, ending with the comment "I am speechless". That state for Hados is an all together good thing. Captain Cranky, Allan Border, who retired himself in blaze of bad temper, believes Ponting when he says he'll play until his not wanted. "He has a steely, strong character and he'll take it on the chin. He's not looking for fairy tale finishes." Veteran ABC commentator Jim Maxwell probably summed up the thoughts of most reasonable thinkers on the game. "I just think from here it's only going to be a slide of some sort through the West Indies and maybe South Africa next year towards that moment (being sacked from Tests). So I think he should take the opportunity now and say it's time to go."
In the end, the sabres are getting rusty and Ponting has chosen death on the battlefield rather than the comfort of the castle. I guess we should applaud but in this belligerent process he's chosen, he'll be made a fool as well as a legend, one of which he could avoid. His belief that the individual is his own best selector falls apart because the individual doesn't see the dark side of the moon in the mirror. It also explains why he refused to consult former players about retirement this summer because "they would have all told me to retire."
Another opportunity has passed by. Gracelessness posing as determination and foolishness posing as courage. Peter Pan refuses to grow up.
One could spend an equal or even longer period of time talking about his contribution in shorter forms of the game. Here, his aggression was even better utilised and just as Don Bradman always had the advantage of having himself in the team, so Ponting. He played a lot of games but scored another mining truckfleet's load of runs. Of the many contributions, his final World Cup innings - a withering hundred against the eventual winners India - will remain the pick, closely followed by his 140x in the final in 2003. Both represent the ends of the spectrum of his one day batting: the grit which slipped into his game as his years of captaincy started to weigh heavy and the exuberant thrilling Aussie sportsman, smashing them for his mates. Always a man of enormous self-belief, when things got tough, he took the load others dropped to carry forward the interest of the team.
It may seem a strange reflection but its not his batting I will remember but his brilliant fielding. Whilst Mark Taylor and Bobby Simpson remain the best slippers we have seen, Allan Border to deadliest short cover, short mid wicket and Mark Waugh probably the best over all fieldsman, its hard not to include Ponting in all of those categories, vying for the top spot. Having not seen Colin Bland, the great South African or the likes of Norm O'Neill, its hard to be sure but of the men I have named, Ponting stands at least beside them. I have watched him swoop and throw, stranding batsmen who thought they had time on their side only to be done by his speed and accuracy. Even this summer, sedately placed in the slips or gully, he has taken some terrific snares, many of them of the most difficult type ... diving forward to lift an edge from the turf or rocking back to take a full blooded cut shot. If you went to a game this summer, you would have noticed how long Clarke and Ponting stayed practising slips catches and the characteristic spit on the hands and rub as the bowler runs in.
He remains one of three players to have played in four World Cup Finals.
Unfortunately, his ending may well enter the Australian lexicon. Emulation will daub those who follow in his footsteps as "doing a Ponting". It won't be a term many would like to have bandied about as their epitaph.
