The Ashes: Ricky Ponting reveals internal issues behind Australia’s 2005 defeat on Unfiltered
Ricky Ponting has lifted the lid on the disastrous 2005 Ashes tour, revealing some of his teammates failed to live up to his expectations and they changed things “to accommodate certain individuals in the team”.
The former Australian skipper also admitted he played Test cricket too long after stepping down as captain, with his form severely dropping before he finally hung up the baggy green in 2012, and he also detailed how he and Shane Warne were fierce adversaries during training.
Speaking to Hamish McLachlan on Channel Seven’s Unfiltered tomorrow night, Ponting delved into what went wrong in Australia’s 2-1 loss to the Poms in England which ended Australia’s near 20-year domination of the Ashes.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Ponting famously scored a 156 at Old Trafford in the third Test draw which is regarded as one of the great Ashes innings.
The Channel Seven commentator was also embroiled in one of the Ashes’ more infamous moments when he abused the England balcony after being run out by substitute fielder Gary Pratt in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.
Ponting was livid that the Poms had abused the substitute fielder rule.
But it was problems within the team, which featured some of the nation’s all-time greats such as Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist, that signalled the end for the once fearsome XI.
On that tour, there were little things that happened that I just expected guys to be grown up and, ‘go and sort it out amongst yourselves’, and I didn’t pay enough attention.
While not naming anyone specifically, Ponting said the wheels came off internally which manifested itself in poor results on the field after Australia had achieved a fantastic start with a crushing 239-run win over England in the first Test where McGrath took nine wickets to record his 500th Test wicket.
“That whole ‘05 tour we tried to change things up to accommodate certain individuals in the team,” he said.
“Even with the way that we trained, we just got away from the really old fashioned, hardnosed, old school way of getting prepared and what we did as groups and just little things that were happening.
“We were trying to do it for the right reasons but when you’re in the middle of an Ashes series and things aren’t going perfectly, it’s hard, because the media are trying to pull you apart and do everything they can to upset the touring team and it wasn’t till it’s like, well, this is not working. They’ve come to play, they’re a good side.”
Ponting admitted they underestimated the England team led by Freddy Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen.
“They’re ready for us and to try and change it in the middle of an Ashes series is really difficult. So for me, it was my greatest learning as a captain. I was a young captain, my first Ashes series away. I’d only been in the job for 18 months,” he said.
“The moment that I identified any tiny little thing that I felt wasn’t right around the team, then I got on it and addressed it straight away. On that tour, there were little things that happened that I just expected guys to be grown up and, ‘go and sort it out amongst yourselves’, and I didn’t pay enough attention.
“Before we knew it we had our backs to the wall in the series. From that moment on things were completely different.”
The most successful captain, boasting a win record of 68 per cent, Ponting only won one Ashes series as captain as Australia’s title as world cricketing superpower began to wane at the end of the 2000s.
Following the 2010-11 3-1 home Ashes defeat Ponting handed the captaincy to Michael Clarke, but continued to play before retiring at the end of 2012 after playing 168 Tests and amassing 13,378 runs and 41 centuries.
His Test average dropped from 51.51 as captain to 38 from 2011-12 with the 50-year-old saying playing on after relinquishing the captaincy was a regret.
“I probably shouldn’t have played as many as I did, but felt like I got every last little bit out of myself by the time I’d finished. I think I knew I couldn’t play the game the way that I played it before. (When) you can’t quite do something as well as you once did the fun is not there any longer,” he said.
“It had never happened before where a captain had stood down from the captaincy and not retired. I did that with all the right intentions of giving Michael Clarke a good run for the next two years.
“I was lucky the teams that I came into, those older, hardnosed Aussie players there taught you the game the right way. And I wanted to make sure that I was there to teach these new players the way that we go about it, and what’s expected.”
Ponting, in advice that it appears Marnus Labuschagne himself has heeded after overcoming a lean patch, said he was holding on too tight.
“I actually just tried to be too perfect the last two years. Because I wasn’t captain, I was still trying to set the best example. I was fitter, I was stronger than I had ever been before but because I was trying to be so perfect I forgot how to score runs,” he said.
“I was so worried about not making a mistake, so I was thinking about not making a mistake first and then scoring runs second. And I’d never done that, but when I was at my best, I just didn’t think a bowler could get me out.
“I walked out with that thought that there’s a one-on-one battle going on. The bowler’s up there, he’s got his ball, I’ve got my bat, let’s go and see who wins and I thought they could never get me out.”
Ponting had a front row seat to most of the legendary career of the late Warne, playing together for 12 years, and said after a poor debut it took a dozen Test matches for the cricketing world to realise how good Warne could be.
“He trained with us, and I batted a lot against him. It was always on between him and I in the indoor nets and all the coaches would sit back and watch us two go at it,” he said.
“He was just so competitive, like you could just tell there was something different about him. There’s never been anybody better with that art or that craft, and probably no one that’s been able to almost work out batters than Shane Warne.
“When Warnie had the ball in his hands in a Test match it didn’t matter where it was, the rest of us were just on his stage, sitting back and enjoying the show.
“That’s how it felt. I mean, I had a few words to him here and there about fields and stuff, but it was like just get out of his way and let him go about his business and all of us just sit back and enjoy it for what it was that’s how it felt.”
Unfiltered with Ricky Ponting will air at 9.30pm Wednesday, following The Front Bar with Stuart Broad on Seven and 7plus.
