Image courtesy of: The Australian

Ponting was “flabbergasted” by Cricket Australia’s publicity stunt to raise awareness about the BBL

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has lashed out at Cricket Australia over the amount of publicity and hype they created over the upcoming season of the Big Bash League (BBL) just hours after the national team were thrashed by 347 runs against England in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.

A huge number of press releases were sent out about the signing of players and to top it all off, former Australia batsman Michael Hussey, who retired from international cricket at the beginning of the year, emerged from a helicopter atop Sydney’s Olympic Stadium to promote the fact that he had just signed a deal with the Sydney Thunder.

Ponting, who will be commentating during this year’s BBL with Network Ten, along with his long-time friend and team-mate Adam Gilchrist, noted that he was “flabbergasted” to see so much television time devoted to the tournament instead of the struggling Ashes squad.

“I was flabbergasted when Cricket Australia put out a statement on Sunday night promoting the success of the Big Bash Twenty20 league because the timing, coming so soon after that heavy defeat at Lord’s, was not ideal,” Ponting wrote in the Daily Mail. “Cricket Australia is a business and they have invested a lot of time in the Big Bash while cuts have been made in first-class cricket. I can see what they were trying to do with that statement but we must remember that the strength of this business will be measured by the success of the national team.”

Ponting believes that Australia’s batting woes throughout the Ashes are a result of the fact that the batting order keeps changing.

The former skipper noted that his successor Michael Clarke should stick to his number four spot instead of coming in at five, which he did during the second Test, as this caused batsman Phillip Hughes to be promoted up the order from the number six spot he had just grown accustomed to.

“One thing Australia must have is stability, particularly in their batting order,” Ponting wrote. “Clarke was back at five having been at four at Trent Bridge, which led to other players like Phil Hughes being moved too, and I believe that your best player should be at three or four, particularly in an inexperienced line-up. There have been nine different players, I think, at three since I stopped batting there and Australia need to make their minds up over who should bat there and in the other positions and stick with them.

“I moved Michael to four a few years ago because I thought it would be for the betterment of him and the team when it became clear he was becoming our best player, but if he feels that it is best to be at five, that’s where he needs to bat.”

Despite having lost six consecutive Test matches, a feat which has not been accomplished since Kim Hughes was in charge of the national team back in 1984, Ponting believes Cricket Australia should not make any rash decisions, especially that of recalling former opener Simon Katich.

“Let’s get one thing clear,” Ponting wrote. “Australia cannot flick a switch and suddenly everything will be all right. We are not going to have a big group of young promising players all coming through to make things better.

“There are no better players outside this group who could come to the rescue but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of talent in this Australia team. It is just that many of them have to find their feet in the biggest series of them all.

“There has been talk about a call-up for somebody like Simon Katich, who is going very well at Lancashire, but there is no point in looking back. This sort of thing used to come up with Shane Warne when Australia were trying to replace him and it would not solve anything to look at stop-gap measures. The selectors have picked these players as the best we have, and it was only a week ago after Trent Bridge we were saying how close things are.”