The Ponting Legacy : What is it?



Thanks Ricky! Adieu to a true champion



"Ponting Poyada" ("Ponting's gone"). Dad yelled at me from the living room. I think this was 2001 and I think this was THAT series in India. Ponting wasn’t anyway in great form coming to India, having just finished a patchy Test series against the West Indies at home. But you could never doubt Ponting back then. Not after he had made mincemeat of the Indian attack in 1999-2000 in Australia. People did remember that. Atleast Dad did. So his joy when he was dismissed wasn’t misplaced. This would go on to happen again and again over the next few years (not surprisingly coinciding with Ponting's Golden Era). This would happen every time I wasn’t watching an Ind-Aus match with my father. He would yell from the living room so that I would come and watch with him. Or more recently, after I moved out of home, he would call me and tell me so that I would switch the TV on. That probably shows how dreaded he was in India. He might not be as worshipped as Tendulkar nor as admired as Lara but dreaded he was. If Indians switched their TVs off after Tendulkar got out, they did the opposite when Ponting was dismissed. That stands testimony to the way Ponting had flayed the Indian attack over the years. FEAR.

But my earliest Ponting memory isn’t that. It’s an image. In fact, all my Ponting memories are clouded by a few images, the earliest one being the gum-chewing lad with the goatee of the mid-90s in the Wills World Cup 1996. For a ten-year-old, he looked eerily similar to his teammate Stuart Law, and hence not someone you would worry about much. How wrong was I! From that, to the slip-fielder who brought an end to Pakistan's misery in the 1999 WC final. I think he caught Saqlain Mushtaq off Mcgrath to end Pakistan's horrendous batting display. And the catch, well you could almost see the ball going into Ponting's hands before it actually did! Yes you could. Then, the dismissal that I talked about in the opening line,poking and proding against Harbhajan & Co. I think he got some 17 runs in the 3-match Test series. That image stuck for some time. 2 years. Yeah! Exactly 2 years. Come March 23, 2003, Ponting tore into the Indian bowling attack in the 2003 WC final. The image I am talking about was a savage six off Javagal Srinath. He butchered Srinath & Co that day. There couldn’t be a better use for that word. Butchered. For me, that image was synonymous with Ponting's Golden Era. An era between 2 World Cups when he hit 33 international hundreds(including 3 doubles). In the same period, Lara, inspite of the 400* and a couple of doubles, had become very inconsistent and finally hung his boots in 2006. Tendulkar, you felt was left soul-searching after what happened in the 2003 WC Final. Also, time was when tennis elbow struck and Tendulkar was redefining his role in the team. And Ponting? Ponting was, by far, the best batsman in the world in that period. I remember waking up early in the morning during the 2003-04 series and thinking, “ God! Will have to watch Ponting pull over and over again all the day.” ENVY.

For about 4 years between 2003 and 2007, Ponting dominated world cricket. One had, by now, started hearing stories about the teenage batsman who would draw crowds who came just to watch him bat against the bowling machine. When playing Australia, you knew which wicket was most important, you knew that if Ponting got in, you would mostly end up playing catch-up in the match. Of course, having names like Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist right above him helped, but you would back Ponting even when the score read something like 40/3. You would fear he would get a counter-attacking hundred and turn the match upside-down. You would always feel nailing Ponting would be difficult. You always knew Ponting would be TOUGH. But hey, Australian cricketers have always been tough and that was a definite pointer to the Australian domestic set-up. Ponting, like his peers, had been toughened by it and knew that he had to put a price on his wicket; the price of the wicket an Australian batsman as Ed Smith points out here.



Sydney 2008 : Forgettable



The next image would coincide with the beginning of Ponting's downward journey, if I can dare call it one: Ponting signalling to umpire Mark Benson that Sourav Ganguly was out. And he did that like an umpire. From that to Bangalore 2010, appealing for a clear bump 'catch' off Tendulkar. Clearly, here was a man struggling to come to terms with the legacy that he would leave behind. A man who couldn’t accept the fact that he couldn’t win anymore at will. You could forgive him for that. Inspite of having been his era's best batsman alongside Tendulkar and Lara, he was questioned. Questioned by lesser mortals, as in that press-conference when he got into an altercation with the scribes. These images too would stay in my mind whenever I think of Ponting. HATE.

But then you couldn’t define a player like Ponting with just images. Images wouldn’t do justice for the fear that he instilled in the opposition camp. Images wouldn’t talk about how he would dominate bowlers. Images definitely wouldn’t tell you how hard he struggled to arrest the slide of the Australian team after all his contemporaries left. Images wouldn’t anyway bother about the pain of a lonely champion left in a not-so-champion side. Images after all are images and do not tell you about the legacy. The Ponting Legacy.

Talking about which, you actually wonder: What exactly would be Ponting's legacy? Would it be of the champion who won 3 ODI World Cups? Or would it be the captain who surrendered 3 Ashes, that too coming after Australia had dominated England for 16 years? I would say that its pretty unfair to juxtapose Ponting the batsman and Ponting the captain. Would your opinion on Tendulkar be coloured by his captain years? I would guess not. It’s only because Ponting's failures as captain came immediately after Australia's unbeatable run. That did make his failures starker. While Tendulkar's failures as captain drowned in the sea of India's overall mediocrity, Ponting's failures were highlighted due to Australia's general invincibility.

If you would bother to take Ponting the Captain out of the equation, Ponting the Batsman still remains great and with a rich legacy, without an iota of doubt. A legacy of never giving up, one of dominating the bowlers, one of absolutely beautiful batting. A legacy he needn’t worry about. He took the torch of Australian batsmanship from Mark Waugh and seems to have handed it over to Michael Clarke. That's the legacy that Ponting would leave behind. And in between all this, you tend to forget Ponting the Fielder, one of the best of his time. It only shows how great a bat he was, that you took his fielding just for granted.

As he was announcing his retirement last week, I knew that now all the Ponting-baiters would have only niceties to say. But I would still say that Ponting was wrong for what he did in Sydney 2008 and later in Bangalore 2010. But then again, that would not colour my opinion that Ponting the Batsman was truly a Legend. And as I am writing this, Smith & Co have just given a guard of honour for Ponting. That should say volumes for what opponents thought of him. If I was earlier talking about him instilling fear in the opposition camp, this was different. This was RESPECT. And respect from the South Africans. Not many people get that. RESPECT.



The final stroll to the middle : Smith's extraordinary gesture



Respect for Ponting the Player. A Legend.

And yes, Dad did call me in the evening and said, "Ponting Poyada!" and I knew he didn’t mean it the way he used to.

 

What's Noticeable and What's Not?

For a marketeer understanding of the concept of just noticeable difference is extremely crucial to the success of his offering. What exactly is jnd???

Just Noticeable Difference is the maximum amount by which a marketeer can alter any attribute of an offering without the consumer or the target market coming to know of the change. This is crucial to marketing.

When one has to increase the quality of an offering or a product, the marketeer must be careful that the increase in quality is felt by the consumer and that leads to a direct impact on the sales. For this to happen, the increase must be higher than the just noticeable difference, below which the consumer would be inert to any change. Similarly, while increasing the price of a commodity, the increase should be based on the jnd concept. The increase should be such that the consumer doesn't notice it, i.e, just below the just noticeable difference.

For example, take a pen that costs Rs. 10. Suppose reasearch shows that the just noticeable difference for it is Rs. 2. Now, the marketeer should be smart enough to hike the price to Rs. 11.99 and exploit the jnd. Anything above it would be noticed by the customer. Anything below it would qualify as lost revenues.

The problem arises when the marketeer contemplates a second hike, i.e, from Rs. 11.99 above. Many say that the jnd would come down now to say something like Rs. 1.50 and that the marketeer should not hike it beyond Rs. 13.48 (11.99+1.49). The jnd continues to come down progressively beyond this.

Now here is where the problem lies. Isn't the jnd a percentage of the actual cost? And if that is so, shouldn't it rise every next time? Possible. Especially when the product is a costly or premium one and there is enough gap between the two hikes. For example, a premium car.
Even for other products if the jnd progressively comes down, wouldn't it boil down to zero?
What then?

Another point is that if the hike in price is accompanied by a raise in quality, how would the jnd be affected then?
Things to be thought over possibly!

Khel Ratna? Who's Playing with It?

First things First. I am an ardent Dhoni fan. I like his cool nature, the way he paces his innings, the way he shows no signs of nerve even when things are going wrong. He exemplifies everything that a captain or a leader must be.

Having said that, I also feel that the authorities have gone just a bit overboard by conferring the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, the highest honour for sporting excellence. That its given for exceptional performance in a single year and not over a period is also taken. But conferring the highest needs to be much more, right? Sachin Tendulkar got the award in 1998. That was by far his best year in cricket. But he was also at his best or atleast the national best in 1996 and 1997. He had to wait for 9 years for it.

I definitely feel Dravid must be feeling robbed. Just rewind to his exceptional performances in 1999, 2002,2003,2004. He was just unbeatable. As captain he won around 15 matches on the trot. These were performances that are unmatchable. Anil Kumble, the old-warhorse, is another person who has been overlooked. The number of matches he has won single-handedly is not matched even by Tendulkar. Even Ganguly was at the prime of his captaincy and form in 2000-01.

Having won the 20-20 World Cup is an achievement but it doesnt stand taller in front of the above mentioned ones. Captain Dhoni,in fact, grew from that victory itself. It was a collective effort.

I would like to take a cue from a marketing concept here. For a premium product, its essential that for every person who buys it, there must be thousand others who want to buy it but can't afford it. Khel Ratna is definitely premium. For every person who gets it there must be many more who want it but can't get it because its not easy. That would be value for the Award. There should be something exclusive and hard to get nature about it. A single year's performance must not define it.

If next year Robin Uthappa comes up with exceptional performance, would he too be given a Khel Ratna?
I don' t think so.
But according to the standards set, I think, he should be.

Aaj Tak..... Kab Tak???

If your senses have been numbed of late by a series of news regarding aliens landing on earth, a car that moves without a driver, a lot of ghost stories on primetime news channel.. Don't worry.. In all probability, you are watching Aaj Tak or Headlines Today.

No! I am not a crusader against the Living Media Group. In fact I have long been one of their most ardent fans since I was in my 8th grade. Every week, I remember waiting for the latest copy of India Today coming home. Those were the days!! But now??..nay!!

Aaj Tak and HT which are news channels under the same Group have left me baffled with the tumbling standards of news that are telecast. I remember, they had started off very well back in 2001 if I am not wrong. But it has become a trend over the last couple of years to unnecessarily sensationalize news and everything that comes with it. And frankly I have been seriously sad over what has been happening. How can a news channel be showing such kind of pathetic news stories?

The final nail on the coffin was hit a couple of days back during a one-hour programming on India's first innings of the ongoing second test match versus Sri Lanka. The Indian middle order had collapsed after a superb start by the openers. Now, Aaj Tak was upto it. Dissecting Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and.....er... Sachin Tendulkar! Now, this is not the first time Aaj Tak has been on their back. Yes, there are a few around who feel that its probably time for the first two. But Sachin Tendulkar? He was number 1 on ICC rankings till he took a break 2 months back. He was India's most consistent performer in the last calendar. Even Ganguly was the second most prolific scorer in Test matches last year. This is just not how you treat your sporting heroes. If this is how sporting icons are treated, I wonder why we long for an Olympic Champion!!

The most disappointing fact was that Kapil Dev was party to the proceedings. Ya, Kapil can criticize cricketers if he wants. But I couldn't help laughing when the anchor of the show was finding flaws in Tendulkar's technique. In his words: " Batsmen should always play with a straight bat. Of late, Tendulkar's bat has been coming down at an angle." O Lord, that was the nadir! A TV anchor ( I forgot his name, good that I did) advising arguably the best batsman of all time??? I couldn't help it anymore.

I do agree that journalists and newsmakers have the right to criticize and dissect. But doing it just for the sake of doing it doesnt make sense. Add to that the amount sensationalized news that pops up every now and then on the Aaj Tak screen as that of the aliens landing. And going to the extent of showing live pictures of them moving around. Who justifies that? ZOOM gives me similar news. I think its time someone does a cleaning up job. I think its high time.

As I was almost changing the channel I just glanced the Aaj Tak logo. It had the word " Sarvashresht" inscribed. Wonder what that meant!!!

Meanwhile the aliens might be laughing!!!

Late Entry

Hi,

This is the latest entrant into the world of blogging, a word that today most people might associate with the reigning superstars of Bollywood and their Blog Wars. But yes, this is somewhere there would be some sort of sanity to the proceedings.

Topics discussed could range from international events, politics, sports, movies and the newspapers. The most favoured topic though would deal with trends and traits that are seen in the happenings around us with specific focus on Marketing and Market Trends.

Have a nice evening!!