This thread has taken off a lot since I last posted so I'll try and keep up. Here's what I wanted to respond to up to page five.
For whatever reasons, he did eat his words (obviously not because Bangladesh did well). People are not saying 'He should eat his words' but that 'He ate his words' before the series started. I dont know what changed his mind, but It was nice to see him eating the humble pie both before the test and during the test(due to BD performance).
Ponting didn't eat his words. Nobody said to him "oh so don't Bangladesh deserve test status now?" And do you know why? Because Ponting took those words back BEFORE the test. Ponting didn't answer for anything. However, people were more than happy to go back to his comments months ago and talk about it.
Who said he is for that reason alone ? However I felt his outburst @ Duncan Fletcher and then going on and on about spirit of game (after the ashes was over) was pretty hypocritical.
Who said he is? Immediately after standing his ground in South Africa, the South African reporters at the ground were starting stories of him being a hypocrit. I've seen people here at CW, when Australia played Sri Lanka, immediately jump all over him for standing his ground. People genuinely think he's a hypocrit for standing his ground.
The fact that Ponting had the gall to suggest something like that is whats hypocritical.
Its about as credible as a fraudster asking you to trust him with your money if he trusts you with his. Players should accept the word of a fielder. Yeah- thats when the OZ team themselves dont accept the word of fielders ( whatever happened to practice what you preach?), flick off bails with bare hands when nobody is looking and then appeal for a dismissal, claim catches on the bounce, etc etc. Right-O !
And i shall be taking the words of the American government that there are WMDs in Iraq.
We have no reason to believe Ponting is trying to put one over on his opposition. I disagree with Ponting's stance because fieldsmen do miss catches that they think they've caught batsmen. And when you have one fifth of a second to react, that's an honest mistake. I honestly believe Steve Waugh made an honest mistake then.
Why raise it at all, why not let the umpires do their job. IMO it's another one of their dirty games that Steve Waugh played all along as a captain and now Ponting is trying that. But other captains aren't as dumb as Ponting to fall for it.
And around and around in circles we go. There's a difference between spirit of the game and cricket laws. BIG DIFFERENCE. I used an example before.
The context was the world record and it is obvious what he meant.
Your right, he said it in reference to the world record. Nobody disputes that. As Kazo said, he's talking about a way most likely for somebody to take the world record. And is he wrong? Nope. That's what irks people, he said something that was true in regard to how the record can be broken.
I might go through page six and onward. But I have to say people just can't seem to wrap their mind around certain concepts that make it difficult to debate with him. I can accept somebody's point of view, but I'd like them to at least understand my point of view in order to disagree with it.