Backing Punter and mates

Sarah Bacon, Freelance Journalist

To lose one Ashes series may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. That said, I'm firmly in the camp of pro-Punter-ites and think that Ricky Ponting ought to be given the opportunity to lead Australia beyond the Champions Trophy.

We have a funny tradition back in Oz — that of rarely allowing a player the opportunity to become a mere ‘cricketer' once he's past his use-by date as a captain, but Punter is a rare breed. His stroke play and decision-making (while taking into account the support he gets from senior members of his team) are nonpareil even given the recent Ashes loss. Michael "Pup" Clarke is a worthy successor, but if you rid Australia of one of its greats then I feel that our future will be shakier than it is currently.

So allow Ponting to continue — after all, he managed to bring around a hostile English crowd by virtue of his stamina, stick-to-iveness, and yes, his courage in the face of extreme adversity. Because if Australia ‘rids' itself of Ponting before we can afford to lose him as a stroke-maker and a captain, then I see rocky roads ahead.

The recent Ashes series was not a great one, and England did deserve the trophy, despite not being the consistently ‘good' team. If Australia lost one session, we would lose the game, but if England did the same, somehow, against all odds, they ended up clinching it. This series had nothing on 2005, it's true, but in fact, the teams were as equally bad in this tournament as they were equally stupendous in the previous England Ashes series. Happily, no open-top bus tours have been planned, and it's to be hoped there will be no New Year's honours for a team that barely bested a slowly rebuilding Australian team, which — for all its quirks, attrition and frankly, a run of bad luck from a toss perspective — will be better served with Ponting at the tiller now and in the future. >

David Reilly, Restaurant Manager, Aussie Legends and Bar Grill, Rydges Plaza Hotel

The new-look, young gun Australian team required a little more game time prior to the big Ashes series. Perhaps some changes were needed earlier than had occurred. No excuses though, the English team won the Ashes fair and square. Congrats to them after the last Ashes series.

Brendan Vyner, Assistant Marketing Manager,Evolvence Education Holding, Dubai

I think that Australia's fall from greatness as a cricket team saddens the entire nation. From the once great heights we are now struggling to win matches against nations we used to dominate. I think the whole thing can be attributed to the untimely retirements of key players such as Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glen McGrath, Damien Martyn and Matt Hayden. The team now is less experienced and will need a few years to gel together until they can rise back to the top where they belong.

Ben Coates, National IS Manager, MSC Australia

Although no longer the all-conquering team of the past decade, Australia has some exciting up-and-coming players whom I believe have the potential to surpass our cricketing greats. We just need to have a bit of faith and they will hit full stride soon enough.

Nadia Nadzri. Receptionist, R Serviced Offices

Despite this year's Ashes results and possibly losing some of our ‘fear factor' as we no longer have some of cricket's superheroes together, such as Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist, I think this young side full of enthusiasm and drive could claim back the throne. Case in point, the recent One-day series was a total whitewash, with Lee finding his form and raising hell with those five wickets twice in one day, and Hauritz troubling the English batters with some tight line and length. So come next year that urn could be coming back home.