Ricky Ponting, who led Australia to two World Cup triumphs in 2003 and 2007, retired from one-day cricket but will continue to play in Test matches.
The 37-year-old made the announcement a day after he was dropped from the squad for the ongoing tri-series but said he would continue to play in Tests.
Ponting registered five consecutive single-digit scores for the first time, and his subsequent axing from the squad almost guarantees an end to his career in one-dayers.
Second only to Sachin Tendulkar in the number of ODI runs — in 375 ODIs he has accumulated 13,704 at an average of 42.03 — Ponting said at a press conference that he did not expect to play one-day cricket for Australia again.
For the majority of his career, Ponting played at No.3 and ended with the most runs and centuries (29) at that pivotal position. Through a 16-year career, he maintained a high level of consistency in one-dayers and scored over 1000 runs in a calendar year six times. Although he scored nearly 63% of his runs in the first innings (8630 runs with 22 centuries) at an average of 42.09, he was not too far behind in chases scoring at an average of 41.93 with eight centuries. Ponting’s record of 32 man-of-the-match awards puts him third on the list of players with the most match awards in one-day Internationals.
BRILIANT WORLD CUP RECORD: Ponting reserved his best quite often for the crucial games and nowhere was this more evident than in the World Cup. He started his glittering run in World Cups with 102 against West Indies in Jaipur on March 4, in the 1996 World Cup but had a slightly disappointing 1999 World Cup in England where he scored just one half-century. However, as the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, he scored two centuries in the tournament leading Australia to their second consecutive triumph. In the final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, after a sedate start to his innings, he switched gears and put the game beyond India’s reach with an outstanding unbeaten 140, which included a record eight sixes. Fittingly, he ended his World Cup career with another vital century (104), though Australia lost the match to India in Ahmedabad on March 24, 2011.
LEADING AUSTRALIA TO THE TOP: Ponting took over from Steve Waugh as Australia’s captain in One-day Internationals following Australia’s failure to qualify for the tri-series finals in 2001-02. In his first series as captain, Ponting led Australia to a 5-1 win in South Africa. After their win in the tri-series at home in 2002-03, Australia embarked on a record winning streak of 21 matches between January 2003 and May 2003.
Not only did Ponting finish as the most successful captain in ODIs (165 wins), he also became only the second player after Clive Lloyd to lead his team to two World Cup wins and also featured in four World Cup finals. Under his leadership, Australia extended their dominance to the Champions Trophy, a tournament in which they had previously struggled.
Only Ponting and Allan Border finished with more than 100 wins in ODIs as captains but Ponting’s win percentage of 71.73 was far higher than that of Allan Border (60.11). Australia’s win-loss ratio under Ponting (71.47) is only matched by South Africa’s under Hansie Cronje, although the latter captained in 92 fewer matches.
