Over the last 4 days, a couple of interesting things happened in the cricketing universe. However, only one of them seems to have captured the viewers imagination whereas the other doesn’t seem to have bothered that many outside of Australia. First, we will discuss about Dinesh Karthik and then we will come to the much more interesting news about Ponting’s comments about the 2005 Ashes loss to England. Hence, the title Of Karthik resignation and Ponting 2005 Ashes Revelation.
Dinesh Karthik’s IPL decision
It has taken awhile but it has to happen nonetheless. Dinesh Karthik, who had been the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL for a long period, has resigned his captaincy with immediate effect. The reason that he had given for resigning was that he wanted to concentrate on his batting. Karthik said “with a view to focus on his batting and contributing more to the team’s cause”
However, a closer look will reveal that that was not really the case. Karthik when he played for Tamil Nadu, was considered a player who could play for India for a longtime. He made his debut as a wicket keeper batsman and really struggled both with the bat and behind the wicket. With the advent of Dhoni, Karthik’s chances were next to none. Despite that, because of his class, he was tried as an opener. Except for a handful of decent performances he wasn’t able to hold on to his spot in Test cricket. He was also tried in the middle order in the shorter formats and he wasn’t able to perform there either. Karthik can definitely not complain about lack of opportunities. Now he has aged and his reflexes have slowed as well.
Nidahas Final
However, Karthik seems to be under the impression that because of his one innings in the Nidahas Final, which was brilliant, he can do wonders on the batting crease. Atleast in this year’s IPL has been batting a couple of positions outside of his capabilities. It is utter ridiculous on this part to be batting at Number 4 and that too ahead of Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell. Morgan, who is the white ball captain for England, should not only have been made the captain right at the start of the tournament but he must have played at the crucial number 4 position because of his experience. Better late than never.
Ponting’s comments regarding the 2005 Ashes loss
Anyone who has seen the 2005 Ashes series will definitely remember that series for the rest of their lives. Such was the impact that series generated. An all-pervading Australians brought down by the tough Englishmen. It was a case of the David against Goliath. The series had so much drama that it could have gone either way.
It certainly was one of the top three series ever to have played over the last 35 years. Until that series, the Australians always had a grand measure over the Englishmen. Every series between 1989 till 2005, the Australians not only outplayed England but they actually annihilated them. Margins of 4-0, 4-1, 3-0, 3-1 was quite common and England except for one test under Nasser Hussain, never won a live test during this period. A period of 16 years of total Australian domination.
Towards the start of the 2005 Ashes, only a handful gave England a slimmer of a chance. All Australia had to do was to turn up on the ground and they will emerge victorious. Infact, the first test went exactly according to script. Australia won that series by 239 runs despite scoring only 190 in the first innings. However, the rest of the series was anything but according to script. The England team certainly believed that they have what it takes to defeat Australia. They were marshalled pretty well by a very good captain in Michael Vaughan. A young player was introduced into the team which seems to have rejuvenated the entire England team. Kevin Pietersen. They believed because a year or so ago before the Ashes, England had defeated South Africa in South Africa which was not a mean achievement by any standards.
McGrath’s misfortune
All they needed was a stroke of luck that they were given on a platter by Glenn McGrath’s twisted angle right before the start of the 2nd test. From then on, we know what happened. One of the greatest series was played right in front of our eyes. The whole world saw that the Australians were brought down to earth when Ricky Ponting was jubilant after having drawn the 3rd test.
Now, it has emerged that some of the Australians were quite complacent during that tour. This was revealed by none other than Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain of that 2005 tour. Ponting has not revealed any names.
“we tailored our training … we were trying to find ways to make our training less time consuming, but everyone walking away feeling like they got a lot of work done.
“Some guys, without mentioning names, wanted to go down early and get work done and not be there for four hours.
“We just lost a little bit of the fabric of Australian cricket if you like … a lot of guys started to shy away from that side of it. You know, ‘I don’t want to face the new balls today, I don’t want to face the bowlers, just throwdowns’. A lot of that sort of stuff started to creep in.
Ponting did concede that they were against an excellent England side who were playing at their best and who wanted to win the series after more than 16 years. This against a team who were casual and the result will always be one way only.
Conclusion
What this little revelation by Ponting goes onto show is that, no matter how many brilliant players you have in the team, no matter how many games or how many series have you won against a specific team, no matter if you had won across most of the cricketing world, no matter if you intimidate the opponent just by your presence, if you are not well prepared, if you are not disciplined and if you complacent, tasting success in sports or in any walk of life will be extremely difficult.
I just hope that the Indian board, the Indian cricket team & Saurav Ganguly reads this revelation by Ponting to understand the magnitude of their next series and the mistake they have made in playing IPL thereby depriving vital match practise.
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