Ricky Ponting's Biography

He is the captain and star batsman of the Australian Test and one day team.

On January 1, 2006 Ponting started his 100th Test Match with a test record of 7,990 runs at a stunning average of 56.27 with 26 centuries.

In 2006 Ricky Ponting continued his impressive batting record.

In March 2006 Ponting overtook Don Bradman in the list of all-time century-makers with 30 Test hundreds. The record is held by Sachin Tendulkar who has 35.

Also, in the second test match against South Africa, Ponting became only the second player - the first was India's Sunil Gavaskar - to score centuries in each innings of a test three times.

Ricky Ponting started playing cricket for his local club, Tasmania at the age of 17 and made his Test debut for Australia at 20. It was against Sri Lanka and Ponting was out for 96 on a doubtful LBW decision.

Ponting played the next 6 tests for Australia but then lost his place and wasn't selected for two years. His comeback match was against England in which Ponting scored his debut test century.

Despite getting excessively drunk on two occasions when on tour, and being involved in a bar fight, Ponting generally kept his place in the Australian team as the no.3 batsman apart from in 2001 when he suffered from an ankle injury.

In 2003 Australia won an emphatic victory in the World Cup Final against India, with Ponting hitting 140 runs.

After this he became the Test captain and Australia white-washed Sri Lanka 3-0.

In 2005 Ponting's Australia came face to face with England for the Ashes.

Australia took the first Test at Lords but England fought back at Edgbaston to tie the series. In the third Test at Old Trafford Australia needed to survive a whole day to draw. Ponting, in effect, saved Australia with a magical 156 runs.

The fourth Ashes match was at Trent Bridge, where Ponting expressed his annoyance at the use of substitutes after he was run out in single figures by England substitute, Gary Pratt. England won the match to lead the series 2-1.

In the final test, England drew, and so won the nail-biting series. Ponting praised the English performance:

"England have played great cricket through the summer and they thoroughly deserve to regain the Ashes ... They've out-played us in every Test match bar the first one."

In spite of losing the Ashes, Wisden named Ricky Ponting one of the top 5 cricketers in the world in 2005.

The plaudits continued for Ricky Ponting in 2006, when he was nominated for four cricket awards by the ICC: Player of the Year, ODI Player of the Year, Captain of the Year and Test Player of the Year.

On the first day of the first Test of the 2006 Ashes, Ricky Ponting showed that he meant business hitting an unbeaten 137. Ponting went on to make 196.

Ponting ended up captaining Australia to a 5-0 drubbing of England and Ricky Ponting was made man of the Ashes series.

He followed up by captaining Australia to the World Cup in 2007.

On 9 July 2009, Ricky Ponting passed 11,000 Test runs and gained his 38th Test century in the first Test of The Ashes.

On 31 July 2009, in the Australian first innings of the third Ashes Test, Ricky Ponting became the leading run-scorer for Australia in Test matches.

In March 2011, Ricky Ponting resigned as Australian captain both of their one-day and of their Test side, saying that he believed he still had got a lot to offer as a player.

In January 2012, Ricky Ponting made his 40th Test century. It was his first hundred in Test cricket since his 209 on 14 January 2010.

In December 2012, Ricky Ponting retired from international cricket. At the time he was the second highest scorer in Test cricket behind Sachin Tendulkar.