Ricky Ponting means business. He has become busier after quitting mainstream cricket. “My wife thought once I retire from international cricket, things will slow down. But actually I’ve been playing more. It goes to show I love the game,” he said.Bought by MI for $4,00,000 at this year’s auction, Ponting played his first full season of Big Bash League and was also named Sheffield Shield Player of the Year for his role in Tasmania winning the title. Asked to lead the Mumbai Indians, the 38-year-old Ponting wants to be the best player and captain for his franchise over the next two months.Ponting gave a glimpse of what to expect when he took the field for a practice match, involving MI players, at the Wankhede on Sunday.With his glowing blue pads strapped on and a shining Kookaburra bat tucked under his arm, he climbed down the stairs with the enthusiasm of an 18-year-old.As the clock ticked towards 11, he cast a cursory glance at MI’s fielding coach Jonty Rhodes. Typical of the Ponting we know, he advanced to the wicket briskly, almost leaving his opening partner Sushant Marathe behind. Out in the middle, it was the Ponting of yore. Sweetly-timed strokes flowed from his bat. As he drove square and executed some deft shots behind the wicket, Marathe was playing his own sweet innings. He even pulled one to mid-wicket and got a doze of encouragement from Ponting. After all, wasn’t Marathe batting alongside one of the best exponents of the pull?As one would expect, Ponting was busy on the field too. He started from the slips, moved to mid-wicket, then to covers, and fielded at long-on too.He clapped when Dhawal Kulkarni bowled three successive yorkers, something the Mumbai medium-pacer rarely does in India’s domestic tourneys. It won him applause from coach John Wright. “Well bowled DK,” Wright shouted from just outside the boundary.There were flashes of the strategist we will see in the next two months. Maybe it’s not absurd that West Indian Dwayne Smith batted twice in the first innings, and was run out both the times. Smith batted again, this time as opener for his opponents, and was bowled. “In T20 you need flexibility, that’s what we have told the squad,” Ponting said. “I expect every batsman in the eleven to bat at any spot. That’s what we would need at different times throughout the tournament.”Ponting & Co leave for Bangalore on Sunday night for their opening match on April 4. He felt his team had to work on some more areas.One of the challenges, he stressed, was to get the players together. “We have international players playing around the world. A lot of those guys are coming in quite late. Some will join us in a couple of days before the first game. That’s the biggest challenge every team will have going into the IPL. With Mumbai, we have John Wright, the successful ex-Indian coach, and Anil Kumble, an ex-Indian captain and a very, very good player and a leader. And obviously me coming into the set up as one who is very experienced and who has played cricket in all conditions. We put together a really strong leadership group around our team. When you think of some other players around the team, like Sachin and Harbhajan and guys like that, we have got a lot of experience and great skill,” he said.“MI have a proud tradition in the IPL, finishing at the top or being in the semifinals. We have not obviously cracked at winning the tournament. Hopefully this we will be the year.” It was the inevitable that there would be a reference to Monkeygate and Harbhajan Singh. Ponting and Harbhajan in the same eleven makes for a delicious prelude. Ponting insisted that there would be no baggage of the past or bitter memories.“We are all friends for the next two months. That’s one thing I have made very clear with the guys. Sachin has not been around the team yet. Harbhajan has been around the team. I will get a chance to speak with them.”Steve Waugh would urge his team to embrace different cultures. Ponting, like Waugh, seems to have made peace with India. Only one cricketer has mattered to Mumbai since 1989. And Ponting said he wouldn’t grudge the never-ending adulation that man gets. In fact, he was ready to enjoy it. “The highlight of coming to Mumbai has always been playing against Sachin. The roar of the crowd before he is about the take the first ball is deafening. And I have always been on the opposition side. Now that I am on the same team, it will be a bit more fun.”It would be anything but fun for his opponents should the two ageing giants fire together.@GKspts

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