In defence of Ricky Ponting

According to the Australian ethos, Test Cricket is the pinnacle. Representing Australia in One Day Internationals or Twenty-20 cricket is a great honour, but is pales in comparison with pulling on the Baggy Green to represent Australia in the long form of the game.

Ricky Ponting knows that better than most. Since the end of October 2004, while being captain of all the Australian men's cricket sides, he has missed 19 One Day Internationals and 4 Twenty-20 matches. He has played all 44 of Australia's Test Matches in that time.

With the threat of suspension hanging over his head yesterday, Ponting needed to make a decision. With India 6-166 and looking shaky at tea, Ponting was 10 overs behind where he needed to be, and he needed to make these up with previous infractions on his record as captain for slow over rates. He turned to Cameron White, Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke and Jason Krejza, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh put on a 100 run partnership while Australia caught up on the over rate. The test match went from winnable to probably unwinnable.

Did Ponting make the right decision? We would have all loved to see Australia chasing less than 300, with the chance to level the series and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but Ponting was painted into a corner. He values playing Test Cricket and captaining Australia in same more than anything in his career, and putting this series first before an upcoming series against a lesser opponent would have been disrespecting the game.

Ponting is a victim of the changing game. Heroes of a long since passed day of cricket like Ian Chappell talk loudly about the ICC doing something about over rates, but the threat of suspension to a national team captain turned a deciding rubber of a test series that will give the winner the ability to claim status as the world's best into a farce.

What administrators and commentators alike need to acknowledge is the game is vastly different to the one that was played 40 years ago, when 80 8-ball overs could be fitted into a day's cricket.

The money in the game puts pressure on captains and players, and so does the media scrutiny. Captains, rightly, now spend more time and mental energy getting bowling changes and field placing just as they want them. Ponting was damned either way in Nagpur yesterday; either damned for saving his own hide, or damned to miss his first test in four years.

There needs to be a realisation and an acceptance that 6 hours is probably not enough time to bowl 90 6-ball overs of today's test cricket any more. While we still want to see a cricket match decided over five, 90 over days, it is probably time for the ICC to make a one-off admission, and extend both the opening and closing sessions of a day's Test Cricket by 30 minutes. Along with an increased enforcement penalty for those captains who cannot get 90 overs bowled in 7 hours, this would work and focus the play and the commentary on what is happening on the field between bat and ball.