By Adrian Meredith
VICTORIA, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) September 19, 2012: The year was 1999. It was a warm January night and Australia had just won an ODI a couple of days prior. They had a night off. No training, no nothing. The team were given a free license to go out and get as drunk as they like. And a lot of them did.
Ricky Ponting wasn't the only one going out. It just so happened that his night out ended up making the headlines in a very big way.
Ricky Ponting was known as a gambler. Not a compulsive gambler, but a keen one. He got the name "punter" because of it. He especially liked to gamble on dogs. He was actually pretty good at it and made money out of it.
Ponting was not known as a drinker.
So the news that Ricky Ponting had been beaten up outside a Sydney nightclub (in Kings Cross, no less) came as something of a shock. Was he secretly a drinker?
A few weeks earlier, prominent hair re-growth spokesman and former test cricketer Greg Matthews was also beaten outside a nightclub. Greg Matthews tried to find his attackers and bring them to justice, but to no avail. Matthews said that it was a worrying trend. He was right, too. 5 years later, in January 2004, another ex-cricketer, also from Australia, David Hookes, was beaten to death outside a nightclub, this time by a bouncer.
According to Greg Matthews, as well as several other commentators, Ricky Ponting was bashed because he was a cricketer. Perhaps it was because he hadn't scored enough runs in a certain game. Who knows what his attackers thought that he had done wrong. Some people are very passionate about cricket.
It was a couple of days before Ponting officially spoke. When he did, Matthews at least was furious.
Ponting refused to name his attackers. Indeed, he refused to describe them. He refused to cooperate with police either.
This was initially described as his being fearful of further reprisals, that could lead to him being killed, the kind of reprisals that Greg Matthews suffered, which, though it didn't lead to him being killed, might have. David Hookes was killed though. And perhaps, had Ponting named his attackers, it would have eventually ended his life.
So Ponting made up a story. He said that he was so drunk that he can't remember what had happened.
It was a lie, of course. Police said that he wasn't drunk when they found him. He was knocked unconscious. Ponting had been drinking, but he wasn't drunk. He certainly wasn't drunk enough to not remember anything.
But it was a story that may have saved Ponting's life.
A lot of people will say that it was the coward's way out. In a time when sports people, especially cricketers, especially in Australia, were being attacked on a regular basis, it was high time that someone stood up for them. But Ponting refused to be that man. Instead he told a lie. A lie that would do much to ruin his career!
The Australian Cricket Board undoubtedly knew the truth. But they decided to support Ponting's lie, publicly at least.
Whether the ACB was punishing Ponting for refusing to cooperate with police and refusing to name his attackers, or whether it was because they wanted the public to believe that it was about him drinking, not about him being bashed, we will never know.
Before the bashing, Ponting was on the way up up up. He had secured a spot in the ODI side, and was now batting up at 3. He had a great record too, averaging over 40 at a strike rate in the 80s. He had also started his test career and was already averaging over 40. He was set to be Australia's next test captain. He was widely picked to replace Mark Taylor. Steve Waugh was not expected to ever captain Australia.
But instead, Ponting was dropped from the Australian team, not through form, and not even because of the injuries he suffered from the assault; but rather as punishment for his "drinking" (which he never did in the first place).
Steve Waugh would never have been Australian captain if not for this assault. It would have been Ponting instead. And Ponting would have been Australian captain for a very long time if it wasn't for this assault. But alas that is how it happened.
To his credit, Ponting used his time on the sidelines to become "hungrier". He was already one of the best batsmen in the country - he became the absolute best and one of the best in the world. He was already super fit and one of the best fielders in the world - he became absurdly fit. He became obsessed over being the best cricketer he possibly could be.
By the time that Ponting came back, several months later, his performances were absurdly good. Yet the selectors treated it as if he was struggling. It took a long time before he was solidly in the team and then, after Steve Waugh retired, they were reluctant to commit to Ponting's captaincy. They seriously considered Gilchrist as an alternative. After all, Gilchrist had never had any controversy associated with him.
The over-punishment is a shameful episode in the history of the Australian Cricket Board - or Cricket Australia as they are now known.
There are no complaints over the punishment of Andrew Symonds - who turned up to a game drunk - Symonds, if anything, was under-punished and was lucky to get as many chances as he had.
But in recent times another young Australian, Mitchell Marsh, has been over-punished, though at least this time he was actually drinking. Mitch Marsh didn't turn up to an international game drunk like Symonds did, nor was he bashed like Ponting was. Mitch Marsh turned up to a developmental squad training session late and drunk. It wasn't even a first class practice session. It was a meaningless development squad - meaningless because Mitch Marsh is past that stage in his career. And for that Mitch Marsh has been excluded from the T20 squad - replaced by Glenn Maxwell. Mitch Marsh doesn't even know when his suspension expires.
Punishment, when it is warranted, can make a player better. But I wonder how much benefit the over-punishment of Ricky Ponting really had. And will it really help Mitchell Marsh to be rubbed out of the World T20 squad? Mitch Marsh is a much better option than Glenn Maxwell and it is going to hurt Australia to have Maxwell in there in his place.
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