Former Australia captain and three-time World Cup winner Ricky Ponting was formally inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame on Wednesday, 26 December.
To mark the occasion, Ponting received his commemorative cap from compatriot and ICC Cricket Hall of Famer Glenn McGrath during the tea break on the opening day of the third Test between Australia and India at Melbourne.
Ponting had been named in the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame along with former India captain Rahul Dravid and England women’s wicketkeeper-batter Claire Taylor during the ICC Annual Conference in Dublin in July, which he could not attend.
“When you play one Test for Australia, you join a very elite group of players but now to be part of the ICC Hall of Fame, you join an even more elite group of cricketers, so it’s a pretty special day today.”Ricky Ponting
Making the moment sweeter for Ponting, who along with Clive Lloyd remains the only man to have twice led his team to a World Cup crown, was the presence of McGrath. The duo were arguably the two most significant and consistent contributors to the success of the all-conquering Australian team at the start of the 21st century.
“ I have lots of great memories with Glenn. I went to the cricket academy with Glenn in about 1990, so I have known Glenn for a long time. It's a really cool thing that they do to have a fellow inductee actually hand over your cap and induct you in, so to have someone like Glenn do it, with whom I'm working with now and have played with for 10 or 12 years, makes the whole thing a little bit better,” he said.
Ponting retired from international cricket in 2012 after scoring 13,378 runs in 168 Tests with 41 centuries, 13,704 runs in 375 ODIs with 30 centuries and 401 runs in 17 T20Is with two half-centuries.
The 44-year-old was named the ICC Player of the Year in 2006 and 2007, while also being named the ICC Test Player of the Year in 2006.
(With inputs from IANS)
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