A historic admission by Ponting
In a historic and monumental statement, Ricky Ponting hoped that the freak game at Wanderers would not affect his team's morale. He said
We are really disappointed at the moment and I'm sure that will hang around a little while to tell you the truth. Hopefully not too many of those mental scars hang around this week. We've got to try and forget what's happened today as quick as we can. South Africa can obviously gain a lot from that. They'll still have quite a few of this squad in their Test squad. There's a pretty short turnaround until the Test match and we've got to get away and work hard.I think this is perhaps the first admission of low morale and being psyched by the opposition by an Australian captain. I never thought I'd see Australian captains use words like 'mental scars' etc. in a context other than pre-series punches. Ponting didn't say anything of that sort when England thrashed Australia in the Twenty20 game before the Ashes started.
Is this the first indication that the edifice (of self-belief) is finally crumbling?
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed -
|
No. It's the honesty all the Aussie knockers have been criticising us for not showing in the past.
i think it's good - feel sorry for yourself for a day or two, then make up for it. After all, they only lost a 5 game one day series, albeit one remarkable game, but after the first over of the First Test, it won't matter that much
By 
Stuart Helwig (15 Mar 2006, 3:10:00 am)
stu: Yes, the honesty was surprising. But perhaps this introspection ought to have happened after the Ashes as well. Recently he said that Australia only lost two tests last year, forgetting the eventual outcome as a result of those two losses. I agree. The one-day loss shouldn't really affect Australia. They still have enough weaponry to defeat South Africa. Test cricket is totally different!
By Jagadish (15 Mar 2006, 10:59:00 am)
We'd prefer if you posted comments with your real name to add more credibility to your opinions. However, the moderators reserve the right to delete comments, especially those containing offensive or unsuitable language. The opinions in the comments are your own views. You are welcome to provide a URL to your own cricket blog, but the moderators reserve the right to delete comments which only reference sites for viewing live streams.
Links within entries open in a new window. Some of the links may now be broken/not take you to the expected report since the original content providers may have archived/removed the contents. Some of the sites linked may require registration/subscription.
All opinions expressed are those of the authors alone. The authors' respective employers (past, present or future) are in no way connected to the opinions expressed here.
All pictures, photographs used are copyrights of the original owners. We do not intend to infringe on any copyright. Pictures and photographs are used here to merely accentuate and enhance the content value to our readers.
|
|
|
|
Post a Comment