ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Ex-Australia captain Ricky Ponting has given the concept of the Limacol Caribbean Premier League (LCPL) his thumbs-up.
The batting legend, who made his first senior international tour with his country to the Caribbean in 1995, has been playing for the Antigua Hawksbills, and he said the inaugural tournament involving six franchises was exactly what the region had been crying out for.
“The style of cricket the West Indies play is really suited to this format of the game,” he said. “If you look at (Chris) Gayle, (Kieron) Pollard, Marlon Samuels – they have got some really terrific Twenty20 players. The West Indies fans and players have really embraced Twenty20 cricket and it has gone really well. The crowds have enjoyed it and they have come out in big numbers wherever we have been.
Ponting said the concept is great, and it’s right but the biggest challenge now for these types of events is finding the right time in the calendar. Quality of pitches and attracting the world’s best players to t
he Caribbean would also be hurdles for the organisers in future but he believes those hurdles are ones that can be overcome.
“We have seen that some players who committed to play two or three months ago have not been able to make it and that is going to be a challenge moving forward – how they attract the bigger name players – but the way this event has gone, I am sure they will be able to do that,” he said. “From a cricketing point of view the pitches are so important. In this tournament we have had low-scoring games but otherwise they have been reasonably close as well so the competition has gone really well so far.”
For Ponting, a triple ICC Cricket World Cup winner, with 27,483 international runs, 71 hundreds for his country at Test and One-Day International (ODI) level and a total of 560 appearances for Australia in Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals, this tournament has been part of his swansong to playing the game he loves so much.
At 38 years old and with a young family, he dismissed the idea that he might change his mind about retiring this year.
