Indian tour started a summer of woes: Ponting

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Australia captain Ricky Ponting has admitted that one of the most challenging summers of his career which saw his side falling from the pedestal started with a Test series defeat to India in October last year. The summer saw the end of Australia's domination in world cricket which was evident from their 0-2 defeat in the four-match Test series in India and Test and ODI loss at home against South Africa. More... Indian tour started a summer of woes: Ponting Press Trust Of India Melbourne, February 15, 2009 First Published: 12:09 IST(15/2/2009) Last Updated: 13:48 IST(15/2/2009) Australia captain Ricky Ponting has admitted that one of the most challenging summers of his career which saw his side falling from the pedestal started with a Test series defeat to India in October last year. The summer saw the end of Australia's domination in world cricket which was evident from their 0-2 defeat in the four-match Test series in India and Test and ODI loss at home against South Africa. "It's been a challenging year, there is no doubt about that, going back to the start of the Indian tour. We knew India was going to be challenging and it probably ended up being exactly what we thought it was going to be," Ponting told 'Daily Telegraph'. Ponting, however, insisted it was quite satisfactory to see new talents emerging and handling responsibilities during the summer. "The whole year, there have been some challenges, but it has been an exciting one for me as well. To see the new fresh faces makes it an exciting time," he said. Ponting does not consider Australian players overworked with too much cricket. "I don't think there is too much, it has been a busy year for us. The thing is we are fully professional cricketers and if that is all you are expected to do, then that's challenge you face," he said. Asked whether the decision of the national selectors to rest him for two one-day games against New Zealand a correct one, Ponting said, "No, that's exactly why I came back. I was rested when we were 1-0 down, when we went 2-0 down I was on the phone to my manager at eight o'clock that morning and I spoke to him at length about what we should do. "I spoke to the coach (Tim Nielsen) and the chairman of selectors and Michael Clarke, who had captained the team the night before. I told him what I was thinking and before you knew it I was back leading my country." Ponting does not think Twenty20 cricket as a threat to the one-dayers. "I think both (ODI and T20) will survive. There is any doubt about that. We are playing more and more Twenty20. It seems like the fans want to see it and the players have taken the game on board in the last 12 months since there is now a world championship to play for," said Ponting. "When we first started playing it, I thought the game was going to be one that would be used almost as a marketing tool but it has grown into something bigger than that." Ponting also hoped that troubled all-rounder Andrew Symonds would be ready in time for the Ashes series. "I just hope he is in a position where he can be seriously considered by selectors, that is what we all want. That will be through scoring a lot of runs for Queensland and everything else being on track as well."

[Nash]

Poor pnting..

[Dark Warrior]

r u questioning his integrity?

[Cricketics]

Punter is wrong. It was the Australian summer last year when India toured there and showed the world how to play, thats when the closure of Australian dominance, came into existence.

[flamy]

Punter is wrong. It was the Australian summer last year when India toured there and showed the world how to play' date=' thats when the closure of Australian dominance, came into existence.[/quote'] wurd.

[matma]

Yup, it was the Indian tour of Aust that they started to slide. In my opinion, India should have won the test series. Shocking decisions went against India big time. I bring it up, cos that is the only way Aust won that test series. Man I love seeing Aussie lose...hahahha

[Dirty_South]

mental disintegration :--D

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Injuries a factor for bad run: Ponting Australian skipper Ricky Ponting believes the cluttered international scheduling is a contributing factor to the debilitating run of the World Champions. More... Test logjams fell Ponting's stars Malcolm Conn, Cricket | February 16, 2009 Article from: The Australian RICKY Ponting has defended the amount of cricket the injury ravaged Australians are playing, but says the cluttered nature of Test programming is a contributing factor to the debilitating run. In all, 14 players have been unavailable at some stage this summer because of injury, including long-term layoffs to key players such as opening bowlers Brett Lee and Stuart Clark. At one stage last month, during the disastrous Australia Day clash in Adelaide, which Australia lost badly to surrender the one-day series to South Africa, there were nine players on the injured list at the same time. "That's as bad a run as I've seen in Australian cricket for a long time," Ponting said yesterday. "There have been lots of different things which have all added up that explain why we've had as many changes as we have. "I've made it pretty clear over the last few days that I don't think it was any coincidence we played some of our best cricket later in the New Zealand one-day series because we had a relatively settled side." Even last night the Twenty20 team was unrecognisable compared to the more traditional Australian sides. With Ponting and Mike Hussey resting and Michael Clarke forced out with a back injury after a thumb problem hindered him last month, Brad Haddin was the only Test regular in the side. Haddin was named captain of the Twenty20 team even though he has been playing Test cricket for less than a year and has managed only a dozen Tests. "We always knew this season was going to be tough physically on us because of the programming from the start of the Indian tour in late September," Ponting said. "A lot of the Tests were on top of each other, particularly the three South African Tests all back to back. Even the two New Zealand Tests earlier in the summer were on top of each other." Australia played nine Tests in 13 weeks through India and Australia. The workload was exacerbated when the first Test against South Africa in December was pushed back to allow some leading Australian and South Africa players to compete in the Champions League Twenty20 tournament in India. The tournament was cancelled after the Mumbai terrorist attacks but it was too late to reschedule the Test program, leaving three Tests in three weeks between the top two nations in the world, which all went five days. "If you're carrying little niggles from game to game there wasn't enough time for them to get over it," Ponting said. "If they go straight into another game, those niggles can turn into bigger injuries. That's part of the problem we've had over the past few months. "It's not as if it's been a lot of our fringe guys either. It's been Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Andrew Symonds, Shane Watson and more recently Michael Clarke, our vice-captain. It's been a lot of the big boys." Symonds will visit Cricket Australia doctor Trefor James early this week to learn the full extent of his latest knee injury. Symonds pulled up after bowling just two overs for Queensland on the first day of the Sheffield Shield clash with South Australia at Adelaide Oval on Friday. He will fly to Melbourne to meet James to assess the return of the pain in his right knee, which affected him during the Perth and Melbourne Tests against South Africa, and led to him having surgery on New Year's Eve. Symonds batted yesterday, scoring 27, but did not field on Saturday. He left the field on Friday and later spent time icing his knee, staying in the viewing area for the whole of the second day. The return of knee pain is hardly the best news for Symonds at a time when he is fighting to both overcome behavioural problems and prove to Australian selectors that he will be worth his place in the team once he is eligible for selection following the completion of an intensive counselling program. Ponting said it was "impossible" to simply blame the non-stop cricket being played by the Australians as the reason for all the injuries. "We pay so much attention to recovery with the work that our support staff do," Ponting said. "You only have to go back a year to see probably the best 12 months we've had in terms of injuries. It's just the way it works sometimes. "We are very vigilant with our recovery and our training to make sure everyone is as physically well as they can possibly be." Missing in action this summer were: Brett Lee (foot); Stuart Clark (elbow); Shane Watson (back); Andrew Symonds (knee, suspension); Phil Jaques (back); Bryce McGain (shoulder); Jason Krejza (ankle); Michael Clarke (thumb, back); Peter Siddle (foot); Nathan Bracken (calf); Shaun Marsh (hamstring); Shaun Tait (hamstring); Mitchell Johnson (ankle); and Ryan Harris (ankle).