Ricky Ponting's love of the game driving him on

Date :- 22/02/2012

Ponting may be Australia's greatest after Bradman and have the numbers to prove it in Test and one-day cricket but that is for other people to worry about.

Much of the cricket world may be besotted by his brilliant career but Ponting remains besotted by the game he learnt as kid in Launceston’s working class Mowbray.

He is not the retiring type. Just because he was dumped from the one-day team didn't mean he had to quit Test cricket. Far from it.

And there was never a second thought about having to go back and play for Tasmania to prepare for Test cricket now that the circus has passed him by.

There will be no trumpets blaring like Steve Waugh's farewell summer eight years ago.

More likely Ponting will be like Steve's twin brother Mark and simply fade away, unable to let go of something that’s defined the former skipper and given him so much pleasure.

Ponting's reason for playing on could not be simpler.

"It's just my love for the game, I love the game and I love every opportunity I get to represent my country," he said at his non-farewell press conference yesterday.

"One thing I've always been conscious of is not letting my teammates down and not letting my country down and as long as I can keep playing and I don't feel like I'm holding better players out of the Australian cricket team... "I'm not going to keep playing and drag myself through times where I don't think I can play great cricket. "I've proved to a lot of people this summer I can still play great cricket for Australia and be as good as anybody out there on the field.

That's what I'm planning to do for the next period of time, how long that is I don't know."

There are no goodbyes in that and Ponting claims he never broached the possibly of retirement with anyone at any stage.

"I didn't want anybody to try to talk me into retiring," he said.

"I talked to a lot of people through the summer about my cricket and my batting, but that was mainly coaches and very close friends of mine about how I could turn things around.

"If I'd been thinking about retiring then I would've asked some questions of some of those guys who have retired."

So if Ponting is not going to retire then that leaves just one option and the selectors, to their credit, have shown they're not afraid to exercise it.

Courtesy by:WN.Com