absolutely hilarious stuff by Ponting. for the first time I’m enjoying his mind games and arrogance. hell you can’t even call them mind games, can you. he’s just stating plain facts that everyone can see.
so, I guess there are others who also see the recent developments for how completely ridiculous they are… good to know I haven’t gone nuts… at least yet.
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We’ll sort Afridi out quickly: Ponting
DANIEL BRETTIG
June 2, 2010 - 6:24PM
AAP
Ricky Ponting doubts Shahid Afridi is one of Pakistan’s best 11 Test cricketers and reckons he will be rapidly exposed by Australia’s pace battery.
Afridi’s rise to the Test captaincy of his country caused plenty of ripples in his home nation, and Ponting admitted to some surprise at seeing a player so prone to lapses of concentration and discipline assume the role.
He also had little doubt that an Australian pace attack of Doug Bollinger, Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Shane Watson would not take long in demonstrating their methods for dismissing him.
“Yeah I’m pretty sure we do (know how to combat Afridi),” said Ponting.
**"He hasn’t played much Test cricket of late, has he?
"If you read between the lines he’s almost in there as that leader and captain, not necessarily one of their best Test players.**
"So we’ll test him out.
“Even in the one dayers in Australia last season with our quicks bowling the way they did to him, I think we can sort him out in Test cricket for sure.”
Ponting reasoned that the Pakistani captaincy, having been passed around to so many players, eventually had to be thrown to Afridi after he piloted the Twenty20 side to the semi-finals of the World T20 in the West Indies.
“I see Shoaib Malik’s life ban has been lifted as well, so who knows what happens around their set-up, but we know they’re a dangerous team,” said Ponting.
"I guess with him being captain of the Twenty20 side it was a natural progression for him to be the Test captain with all the rest of the guys they’ve tried there not having succeeded.
“But that’s all irrelevant stuff to us, it doesn’t matter who’s captain and it doesn’t matter who’s playing, we just have to make sure we’re focusing on our little things to be the best team we can be when we play them.”
Australia’s series against Pakistan is feeling more and more like an afterthought, particularly on a day when Cricket Australia sent six Test players and all their management top brass to Sydney for the announcement of the Ashes series sponsor, Vodafone.
But Ponting said he would be focused on the Pakistanis despite all the “loose talk” about the Ashes.
“They’re not (Ashes) preparation, no, not for me when I haven’t played a Test match in a long time and I’ll be playing one in a few weeks,” he said.
"For me it’ll be like getting back on the horse again and working my Test game out, as it will be for all of us.
"I guess we speak pretty loosely don’t we about looking forward to the Ashes and all that, and we are, but it’s not with both eyes.
“We’ve got one eye on that and one eye on what we need to get in place to make sure we’re the best team we can be for November.”
If he fails this time I am sure this summer will be his last atleast as a captain.