Legendary Aussie pacer attacks Skipper Ricky Ponting before Ashes
Legendary Aussie paceru00a0attacks Skipper Ricky Ponting before Ashes
Jeff Thomson, arguably the fastest Test bowler that ever flung a leather ball, has a poor opinion of Ricky Ponting as captain, even though he believes Australia will come up trumps in the forthcoming Ashes series, beginning at Cardiff on July 8.
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"I thought Ricky was crap when he was first captain in 2004 and nothing much has improved since," 58-year old 'Thommo' was reported by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying at a lunch in London yesterday to launch the Ashes.
Ponting has captained Australia for the past five years in which his team has dominated Test cricket.
"I'm not the only one who thinks that. I've always bagged him and everyone at home thinks he's s--t at the captaincy.
"He's a great player," the former fiery fast bowler with long, wind-swept blonde hair and flashing blue eyes with an explosive slinging action told the audience, "but captaincy is a totally different thing.
"I couldn't believe it when he was picked as captain. There was no one else to pick but Ponting still had no experience.
"He'd only captained one side ever before. How did he get to lead Australia with that sort of experience?
"He was in a side that had very good players and now he's got a side that has average players. He's still left wanting.
"You see it on him. He gets frustrated. He worries when the players don't do what he's used to with the ball when he passes it on to them.
"This is half the reason he's got a bloke in there who can't even spin the ball (Nathan Hauritz). Simon Katich and Michael Clarke have more chance of taking a wicket than Hauritz.
"Why go for a guy like that?" Thomson, 100 of whose Test wickets came against England, is quoted as saying.
"I don't rate Hauritz.
"The choices he makes, his field settings and the things he (Ponting) does are never right.
"England have the edge in the captaincy department. But while England have a better captain, Australia have a better line-up."
The former fast bowling terror, whose javelin-like catapulting action took a heavy toll of his shoulder, also believes Brett Lee will not play in the Test side.
"I don't see a place for Lee in this side. He hasn't played for such a long time."
"Even though Australia won the Test series in South Africa earlier this year under Ponting's leadership, they'll need to play a lot better than they did in South Africa because the conditions are different," Thommo said.
"I've played in England many times and it's much harder for the bowlers, but I think we'll win the series by a single Test," Thomson predicted.
On the other hand, Ponting exuded confidence before the tourists' warm-up game against Worcestershire yesterday, saying he was still as fired up as ever.
"I've not mellowed as a competitor or a cricketer," he said. "I am loving the game as much as ever and I am involved in a really youthful group of blokes who are a joy to be around.
"We've just come off a really good win in South Africa. The feeling in the group was terrific and it has been over here these last couple of weeks," Ponting said, despite the shellacking his side has received at the hands of the English media after their early exit from the Twenty 20 World Cup last month.
"To me this is as exciting as it gets, to be captain of Australia in England in an Ashes series with a fresh group of players."
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