Right time to go for brilliant Ponting
Unaccustomed to dealing with a crisis, Australia's selectors were not prepared to make the obvious call themselves, at least not for a while longer.
The nation's cricket fans had stomached a third Ashes defeat in the last four Test series against England, followed, barely two months later, by a quarter-final World Cup exit.
The man at the helm for all of those painful losses was Ricky Ponting. He had to go, but while the selectors pondered a while longer,
For a man whose stubbornness was such a powerful aspect of everything he did - both his greatest virtue and also one of his least palatable qualities - it must have been hard.
After the solemn realisation at the age of 12 that I might not be good enough to play cricket for England I decided that the next best thing, writing about cricket, would have to suffice as a career. That's what I've been doing for the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Sport website since 2001, in which time the sport has changed immensely. You can also follow me on .
