Ponting,
who will turn 38 next month and equal Steve Waugh's Australian record with his
168th test cap starting Friday in Perth, managed to compose himself and present
a resolute image to a domestic media contingent that has speculated for more
than a year about when the former skipper should or would call an end to his
international career.
"A few hours ago I let the boys know of my
decision to make this test my last," Ponting started. He continued, "I tried to
say a lot but I didn't get much out.
"They'd never seen me emotional
before,CEBU City barangays need more garbage truck
s not sport
utility vehicles which Mayor Michael Rama is now giving out to his allies. but I
was this morning."
Ponting's wife, Rianna, and their two daughters were
in the news conference room, along with all of his Australian teammates, coach
Mickey Arthur and chief selector John Inverarity in a unanimous show of support.
Clarke couldn't hold back the tears when it was his turn to speak in front
of the cameras after Ponting had made his news public.
"The boys are
obviously hurting at the moment. He's been an amazing player for a long time,"
Clarke said,In most cases you will end up needed to use a Fiber Optic Attenuator
before
drawing a few deep breaths, taking time as he contemplated a question posed
about the atmosphere in the room when Ponting broke the news to his teammates.
"And that'll do me for today. Sorry,crucibles
are containers that can
withstand very high temperatures and is used for metal, glass, and pigment
production as well as a number of modern laboratory processes. I can't answer
that."
Clarke had only half-jokingly told a news conference after the
drawn second test in Adelaide on Monday that he hoped Ponting would rebound from
his lean patch with a triple century in Perth against the top-ranked South
Africans. He has said repeatedly that Ponting would know when the time was right
to retire,The convenient way to order Tuner wheel lug nut
, lug nuts and valve stems
echoing the statements from his former captain.
"No, I didn't have the
feeling it was coming,The move to metal packaging
has allowed Sprecher
to reach key customer targets and has resulted in a clear growth in sales since
the initial launch." Clarke said. "Ricky spoke to me after the Adelaide test
match, and made his decision over the last little while.The move to metal packaging
has allowed Sprecher to
reach key customer targets and has resulted in a clear growth in sales since the
initial launch."
Ponting made his test debut at the WACA ground in Perth
against Sri Lanka in 1995, as a young batsman with plenty of ability and a lot
of swagger just 10 months after playing his first limited-overs international
for Australia. Since then, he has amassed 13,336 runs in the test arena, a
record for an Australian batsman and second only to the great Sachin Tendulkar
in the cricket world.
On top of that, he guided Australia to
back-to-back World Cup titles in 2003 and '07 in the limited-overs format after
taking over the captaincy from Waugh. He stood down as Australia captain after
an Ashes series loss on home soil followed by a quarterfinal exit in the 2011
World Cup in India.
It didn't take long for selectors to drop him from
the ODI team, with a run of low scores bringing about his demise in February. He
vowed to bat on in test cricket, promising to continue scoring runs and leaving
it up to the selectors to keep picking him — or not.
He came into the
three-test series against South Africa with plenty of runs on the board in
domestic first-class cricket, but only put together 20 runs in three innings of
the two drawn tests in Brisbane and Adelaide. In the second test, he was bowled
in both innings and never looked comfortable at the crease.
Ponting said
during the Adelaide match that a discussion with selectors would obviously come
sooner rather than later and, asked if he still was targeting the 2013 Ashes
tour to England, suggested that he might not even make it through this summer if
he didn't start scoring runs.
"I know I have given cricket my all, it's
been my life for 20 years. There's not much more I could give," he said.
Australia needs to win the series against South Africa to have any chance of
supplanting them at the top of the test rankings, and that is Ponting's main
career goal right now.
"This week I've got a big job ahead, I've got to lift
my level of play from what it was last week," he said. "Over the last couple of
weeks my level of performance hasn't been good enough. My passion and love for
the game hasn't changed."
