Neither Ponting or I fit that description. Ponting may crack the top 5.
Bradman I would have thought was our best ever. After his I would have Chappel G, Waugh S (not only for his talent, but also the way in which he made his runs in pressure situations), and probably even Border before Ponting.
Ponting: the man with such talent you can virtually bet your house n him scoring 100 in the first innings of the series, getting out right after a milestone, and then cruising from there. His attitude is a waste of such talent.
Also, as a captain he is so poor that he costs more runs than he scores. I pull my hair out watching him drop 3rd men in, or sweepers at cover while the ball is still new and swinging. It lets batsmen take eay options and play themselves in. Long gone are the days where we would have teams 4/fuckall (I know McGrath is gone, but Lee and S Clark are capable of these feats with the right back-up). I loved Steve Waugh's fields, even to the best openers: mid-off, cover, Point, backward point, Gully, 4 slips, short leg.
Only Justin Langer on the leg side. Ponting gives no direction for his bowlers by the field setting: he is what good park cricket captains call a 'putting out fires' captain. If they score runs somewhere, he plugs the hole with a fielder. That is ok at a basic level, but not elite level sport.
My overall opinion on this is that Ponting is a valuable batsman, a great talent, capable of amazing things. His overall NET VALUE to the team is negative, however, as his captaincy deficiencies more than overwhelm and nullify his batting. As Australia never sack captains and leave them in te side, there is only one option I can see.
