RICKY PONTING has already been nominated by those in the know as the next captain of Australia. Those wise ones think he has the qualifications, the cricket knowledge and the place in the team to be a worthy successor to Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh. We still want to know if he will conduct himself with the dignity, the gravitas and the diplomacy that is just as important as an ability to place deep extra cover in the right spot.
One thing is certain. He has all the batting skills to be No. 3, which is the place that should always been given to the best batsman and in Australia they are apt to pick the best batsman to be captain. Bradman, Hassett, Greg and Ian Chappell, Bill Lawry, Allan Border and Mark Taylor are just a few who have been top batsman and captain. So what about Ponting?
Those of us who watched in awe - and some who looked on with envy - saw him prove himself in the last three weeks in England when he played five innings that would have been justification for any batsman's rating at the top of the order.
Look at these numbers. 70, 102, 21, 70 not out, 35 not out. They are the pride of a man known to his pals as "Punter." Not because they won him money on the roulette table, or the greyhound races or the sweepstake. One day they may help convince the selectors that he should be captain of his country and, leaving out Bradman the untouchable, the finest batsman Australia has ever produced.
Ponting is 26, one of the few Test cricketers to emerge from the backwoods of Tasmania, former rascal, living proof in his foolhardy days that just because you are a top sportsman you are not necessarily a sophisticated, worldly wise sort of a guy. He's the lover of all the excitement a gambler can enjoy, a darting fielder, a classic front foot batsman and, most importantly, possessed of a keen cricket brain.
He made those runs in the NatWest triangular tournament in England. He totalled 298 runs off just 302 balls - a strike rate of 98.68 spread across five matches - at an average of 99.33. Consistency in one-day cricket comes no better than that and now Ponting is the dancing figure who will worry England most when the fight for the Ashes reaches boiling point.
It is his opportunity to leave a memorable impression on the history of the game as well as blight England's hopes of regaining the old trophy.
If he has as good a Test series against England as he had in the triangular matches, Ponting will lead Australia sooner rather than later. But he will one day: that is a certainty. Just as soon as Steve Waugh decides he needs to spend more time fishing, looking after the poor of Mumbai, growing a few vegetables or simply staring at Ayres Rock.
Provided Ponting behaves. And at the moment there is no sign that his exploits in the King's Cross area of Sydney are about to be repeated. Besides, let's forget those few nights of madness, admit to ourselves that we all have a split second in our lives when we did not "do the right thing" as the Aussies have it and talk about Ponting the cricketer.
So far his performances both at Test and one-day level have been startling. In 39 Tests and 61 innings he has scored 2,475 runs, with seven hundreds - top score 197 - and a dozen fifties. Average 46.70 which puts him among the higher ranks of fine Test batsmen but not quite in the Steve Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara-at-his-best category.
Ponting's one-day stats are even brighter. In 123 matches and 123 innings he has hit 4,546 runs at 42.09, right up there with the greats, including eight hundreds and 26 fifties. But the purists want to know where he has the right stuff to make him captain of the top team in the world. Australia still hold down that claim, despite the defeats in India.
Ian Chappell says Ponting is the man and says so forthrightly. As you might expect from a man who has a reputation for telling it the way it is both as captain of Australia in troubled times and as a TV commentator and newspaper columnist. "There has never been any doubt about Ponting's cricket knowledge," Chappell says. "As a 16-year-old at the Commonwealth Bank academy, he was not only the most talented batsman in the group but along with Glenn McGrath, the most competitive and thoughtful."
Chappell says there was a time when the Australian Board of Control thought Ponting was "too dangerous" to be captain. But, now he says, "Ponting has all the credentials to be captain. He is an established player who will hopefully soon take a position of more responsibility in the batting order and is sure of his place in both the Test and one-day teams.
"He also has the cricket brain and he is a punter (the gambling instinct is important in a captain): the only doubt about his ability to succeed will be his abrasive attitude towards opponents on the field."
If anyone has his right to voice this opinion it is Chappell, one of the finest Australian captains. My only question is whether Ponting can inspire the loyalty which Chappell gained from the likes of Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh, Jeff Thomson and company. Can he be the dominant figure that made Bradman undisputed Australian captain from 1936-48? Has he the grasp of tactics, the inventiveness and the rapport with the media that made Richie Benaud so successful in the early sixties?
By the end of the Ashes series we will know whether Ricky Ponting is a good batsman or a great one.
It will be a little while longer before we can tell if he will be a notable captain.
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