If cricketers had a day named after them

3. Captain’s Day – Ricky Ponting (December 19):

The man who won most silverware for Australia, one of the greatest batsmen of all time along with Tendulkar and Lara, Ricky Ponting will forever be remembered as a tough and aggressive captain who led from the front. Ponting was the captain of Australia from much of 2002 to 2011 during the Golden Era of Australian cricket team. For most of the times, he was on top of his game and was in prime form throughout the years.

Groomed by Steve Waugh as a part of the team which went on to be described as “the invincibles”, Punter took over Test captaincy from Waugh in 2004 and maintained Australia’s number 1 ranking in Tests till 2009. He was a part of the squad that completed a hat-trick of World Cups from 1999 to 2007 and was the captain of the 2003 and 2007 squad. Ponting also led Australia to their first ever Champions Trophy victory in 2006 (India) and backed it up with another victory in the 2009 edition in South Africa.

There is no doubt that Australia was a dominant force in the cricket world when Ponting was in charge. He was named ICC Player of the Year for consecutive years 2006 & 2007. He is Australia’s leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket. He is one of only four players (along with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis) in history to have scored 13,000 Test runs. He is one of the most successful captains of all time, with 48 victories in 77 Tests between 2004 and 2010 and 164 wins in 228 ODIs. As a player, Ricky Ponting is the only cricketer in history to be involved in 100 Test victories and holds the record to have been involved in the most ODI victories as a player, with 262 wins.

Also read – Sourav Ganguly names Ponting as skipper in All-time XI