London, Aug 25(ANI): Former Australian cricketer Jeff Thomson has said that Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who is flying home for a rest, should not abandon his “sinking ship” but rather stay back and clear up the mess in England.
Thomson said that unless Ponting has some urgent personal business, he should not desert his inexperienced team, which has lost the Ashes.
“The captain should always be last off his sinking ship, not the first to jump in the lifeboat. It doesn’t look good when he loses the Ashes and then doesn’t hang around to face the music with his team-mates,” Thomson wrote in the Mirror.
Thomson also said that there should be accountability for the defeat and felt that those who were guilty should accept their fault.
“How the hell did the Aussies manage to lose the series 2-1 when they scored eight hundreds to England’s two, and the three leading wicket-takers were all Australian? Heads must roll – and you can start with the selectors,” he wrote.
He further critised Australia’s selection panel and the think tank for going in with four seamers and not including specialist spinner Nathan Hauritz in the team.
“Even the blokes in the crowd could see, from 100 yards away, that the pitch was as dry as a camel’s tongue. Yet we picked four seamers and left a part-time spinner in Marcus North to take on the workload of a specialist,” Thomson added.
Though, Thomson did praise Ponting for his individual performance, he also blasted some of his dodgy captaincy tactics, specifically the last 11 overs in the first Test at Cardiff.
“Ultimately, those overs he gave to North’s gentle off-spin at Sophia Gardens, instead of getting Peter Siddle to shove a few bouncers under Monty Panesar’s nose, proved the difference between a 2-2 draw and Australia losing 2-1. Having said all that, I thought England played a good game at The Oval,” he wrote. (ANI)