No honour in his own country

They say a great artist is only appreciated after he's dead. Well, they say something a bit like that, I'm not quoting exactly.

I think Ricky Ponting will only be truly appreciated after he has retired. Still under the microscope as captain - the most important job in Australia - every decision he makes gets scrutinised. It doesn't help that some members of the cricketing fraternity don't seem to like him, or feel threatened by him, or are upset that he doesn't listen to them. So he cops it from them. And he cops it from journalists (rightly so) when his decisions are incorrect.

Because check these numbers (before the current Test match)
131 Tests
221 Innings
10960 runs
56.20 career average
37 centuries
46 half-centuries
257 high score

During the current Test he has just added another 100 (his 38th Test century), and passed 11,000 career runs, only the fourth person to do so. The others are Allan Border, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.

In One Day Internationals, Ponting has captained Australia to the last two World Cup titles. The Aussies are now unbeaten in 22 World Cup matches, stretching back to the 1999 group stage.

The stats are amazing. To put it into perspective, Tendulkar holds the record for most Test centuries, with 42, from 27 more matches and 39 more innings than Ponting. Given Punter's century rate (38 from 222 innings), you'd expect him to close the gap in the next year or so. Tendulkar's career average is 54.58 (including a number of series against Bangladesh, which Australia rarely plays). And he is considered one of the greatest batsmen of all time. And rightly so.

What I'm saying is I think Ponting should be there too. He should be recognised as Australia's greatest batsman since Bradman. I think the scrutiny of his captaincy has taken away from the respect he deserves as a run-scorer. And he's not a flat-track bully. He has made runs when Australia has been in deep trouble countless times. He's done it against the mighty West Indies, the Indians, the Pakistanis, the English, the South Africans, the New Zealanders, the Sri Lankans, the Bangladeshis... he's taken on all comers.

I think it will only be when he retires and is gone from the team and the spotlight for a while that his legacy is truly appreciated.

Matthew Hayden can understand this. He was under the kosh for months, finally retired and everyone realised just how good he was. Check out his numbers. He's made the seventh most Test hundreds in the world. He got more 100s than 50s! He was a great, great batsman. But his last two years in the team were dogged with poor form, injury and cheap wickets.

When Ricky retires I think it will take the tributes from India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, England, Pakistan and the West Indies for Australians to realise how lucky they were to have had him in the team. Everyone talks about how great Warne and McGrath were; how lucky the team was to have them. I expect one day Ponting will be included in that list.