Ricky Ponting

Ricky Thomas Ponting AO (born 19 December 1974) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator, and former cricketer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. Ponting was captain of the Australian national team during its 'golden era'; between 2004 and 2011 in Tests and 2002 and 2011 in One Day Internationals (ODIs). He is a specialist right-handed batsman, an excellent slip / close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He was named "Cricketer of the Decade 2000". He led Australia to victory at the 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cups and was also a member of the 1999 World Cup winning team under Steve Waugh. He also led Australia to an ICC Champions Trophy victory twice in a row, in 2006 and 2009. Ponting is considered the most successful captain in international cricket history, with 220 matches won overall from 324 matches with a winning ratio of 67.91% He represented the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket, the Hobart Hurricanes in Australia's domestic T20 competition the Big Bash League, and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the modern era, alongside Sachin Tendulkar of India and Brian Lara of the West Indies. On 1 December 2006, he reached the highest rating achieved by a Test batsman for 50 years, though this was surpassed by Steve Smith in December 2017. He stands second in the List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored behind Sachin Tendulkar. After being involved in over 160 Tests and 370 ODIs, Ponting is Australia's leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket. He is one of only four players (along with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis) in history to have scored 13,000 Test runs. Statistically, he is one of the most successful captains of all time, with 48 victories in 77 Tests between 2004 and 31 December 2010. As a player, Ponting is the only cricketer in history to be involv