Ricky Ponting finally becomes a member of Australian Cricket’s Hall of Fame
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Ricky Ponting, Karen Rolton, and Norm O’Neill have become the latest inductees into the Australian Cricket Hall of fame. The chairman of Australian Hall of Fame, Peter King announced that the three would be formally inducted at the Allan Border Medal function in Sydney on Monday.
Ponting, a legend of the game in his own right, is the most capped Australian Test and ODI player of all-time and is still the highest run-scorer in both the formats. While his 13,378 runs in 168 Tests at an outstanding average of 51.85 and 41 centuries, it has put him among the pantheon of greats the game has ever seen, his charismatic 13,704 runs in 375 ODI matches add to his sparkling legacy.
Ponting, in a career that spanned over 17 years, also led the side for a record 324 times across formats and was at the forefront of the team when they won two back-to-back World Cup titles in 2003 and 2007. To go with this already sublime resume, the Tasmanian all-rounder is also the only player to be involved in 100 Test victories.
“Ricky Ponting is unquestionably one of the finest Test and one-day cricketers Australia has produced. An exceptional fieldsman, he has an outstanding record as a top-order batsman and captain and was a key figure during a highly successful era in Australian cricket. That only he and Sachin Tendulkar have scored more than 13,000 runs in both Test and one-day cricket speaks volumes of his place in the game’s history,” said King.Â
Apart from Ponting, former Australia women’s team skipper Karen Rolton has been added to the Hall of Fame. Rolton was an integral part of the Australian set-up since her international debut in 1995 and played 14 Tests scoring 1,002 runs at 55.66, including two centuries. The 43-year-old was also a part of two World Cup victories, in 1997 and 2005, and became the only woman to score a century in a World Cup final, in 2005, against India in Centurion.Â
“Karen Rolton was a dominant left-hander who rightly takes her place in the top echelon of women’s cricket. A former captain, she remains Australia’s leading female Test run-scorer and sits alongside Belinda Clark on the list of one-day cricket run scorers. Karen’s ability to score quickly and make big scores during her 15-year career played a major part in many of Australia’s triumphs on the international stage.”
The third person to be inducted into the hall of fame, Norm O’Neill made his debut for Australia in 1958 and went on to score 2,779 runs in a career that spanned until 1965. His 181 in Australia’s first innings of the Tied Test against West Indies in 1960 has remained the highlight of his career.Â
