Ricky Thomas Ponting, AO (born 19 December 1974), nicknamed Punter, is an Australian former

cricketer who was captain of the Australia national cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test
cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day Internationalcricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman,
slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He led Australia to victory at the
2003 and 2007 cricket world cups and was also a member of the 1999 world cup winning team
underSteve Waugh.
He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket, the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big
Bash League, and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008. He is
widely considered by many to be one of the best batsmen of the modern era, along with Sachin
Tendulkar of India and Brian Lara of the West Indies. On 1 December 2006, he reached the highest
rating achieved by a Test batsman in the last 50 years.
Ponting made his first-class debut for Tasmania in November 1992, when just 17 years and 337
days old, becoming the youngest Tasmanian to play in a Sheffield Shield match. However, he had to
wait until 1995 before making his One Day International (ODI) debut, during a quadrangular

tournament in New Zealand in a match against South Africa. His Test debut followed shortly after,
when selected for the first Test of the 1995 home series against Sri Lanka in Perth, in which he
scored 96. He lost his place in the national team several times in the period before early-1999, due
to lack of form and discipline, before becoming One Day International captain in early-2002 and Test
captain in early-2004.
After being involved in over 160 Tests and 370 ODIs, Ponting 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. Statistically, he is one of the
most successful captains of all time, with 48 victories in 77 Tests between 2004 and 31 December
2010. As a player, Ricky Ponting is the only cricketer in history to be involved in 100 Test victories. [1][2]
[3][4]

Ponting also holds the record to have been involved in maximum ODI victories as a player with

262 wins.[5]