48 hours: Ponting's job going up in Ashes

If Sourav Ganguly thinks he's got problems, he should spare a thought for his Australian counterpart, Ricky Ponting.

During a weekend in which the embattled Indian captain saw his side beaten from an almost unbeatable position, Ponting has been flirting with an even greater humiliation and may yet have to return home in heavy disguise.

The reality for him if his team manage to lose a series against England for the first time since 1987 is a lifelong reputation as "The Captain Who Lost the Ashes" and immediate pressure on his job credentials.

Without doubt one of the finest batsmen on the planet, Ponting's tactical nous has come under increasing scrutiny during this epoch-making series and will no doubt be stirring up more debate after his efforts at Trent Bridge.

First there was the decision against opening the bowling with paceman Shaun Tait, the much talked about South Australian who had been selected ahead of Jason Gillespie on the basis of his outright speed and wicket-taking ability.

How many times we were told about his blistering pace in the lead-up to the test is anyone's guess, but by the time the match rolled around Tait was talking excitedly about teaming up with Brett Lee, and drawing comparisons with the old firm of Lillee and Thomson.

Needless to say, Ponting instead erred on the side of caution (one of his biggest shortcomings according to critics), opening the attack with Lee and the more sedate seam bowling of Michael Kapsrowicz.

It didn't work of course, but Ponting's tactics were no less bewildering when he eventually rang the changes and particularly when he decided to bowl Shane Warne without a close-in fieldsman and with two sweepers on the off-side.

It was only last November that Ponting received a roasting from his own press for some curiously defensive leadership, on that occasion because he employed a strategy of feeding Jacob Oram a single in order to attack the New Zealand tail.

Why would he do that when he had the best bowling attack in the world, asked the critics, and it seemed a fair question when you considered the battery of weapons at his disposal.

But there was Ponting again on Saturday morning, employing the most successful bowler in the history of the game yet opting against attacking the English with his field.

There was a time, not so long ago either, when an England batsman only needed to see Warne to be incapacitated for a couple of hours, such was his hold over their mindset and central nervous system.

He's been irresistible in this series too, at times almost playing the English on his own with bat and ball, calling on all his experience and instincts to keep his captain in the hunt

With that in mind, it should have been almost criminal for Warne to bowl without a fieldsman under the helmet, but there he was at Trent Bridge, employed as if he was some wet-behind-the-ears greenhorn in need of special protection.

So Ganguly should rest easy. Even though his team conspired to fall flat on its face against Shane Bond at Bulawayo, sparking fury among the game's biggest fan-base, most attention remains on Ponting.

Or, at least, on the fate of his ashes.

And the reason why we're even talking about this is because of the events on this day all those years ago that led to this appearing in the Times newspaper:

In Affectionate Remembrance Of

ENGLISH CRICKET
WHICH DIED AT THE OVAL

On 29th August, 1882,
Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances
R. I. P.
N. B. - The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.