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“There’s an elephant in the room at the moment in Ricky Ponting that nobody is really addressing,” Cairns declared.
“I’ve got the utmost respect for Ricky Ponting but there’s a time and a place and for me his time and place is Hobart and the second Test against New Zealand just to say ‘thanks very much’.”
“They’ve allowed Ricky to keep going because of his stature in the game.”
“But why should he have to make the call? Australia has always been about the team and what’s best.”
“When you look at the likes of Mark Taylor, (Ian) Healy, Mark Waugh – they were told it was their time.”
“Australia for me was an uncompromising cricketing nation but I felt there have been decisions that they made that have been compromising.”
Ponting has not been very good with his recital for a year, as he was striving to regain his form, which led to critics saying that Ponting should step down from national duty.
The right-handed batman’s last impressive innings came against Pakistan at Bellerive Oval in Hobart, in January, 2010, scoring an outstanding double century, since than he has never been consistent with his batting performance in Test cricket.
In the meantime, he failed to show his presence during the recently finished 2-match Test series against South Africa, except scoring 62 runs in the 2nd innings of the last Test at New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.
Cairns warned Australia the Ponting distraction and the loss of so many frontline players to injury has left them vulnerable.
“Whilst that (the Ponting speculation) continues on, the media circus will go with it and the guys will be surrounded by that talk instead of getting on with playing cricket,” he said.
“We’re languishing and it’s disappointing but you guys (Australia) are fourth (in the world rankings) and have got some rebuilding to do.”
“They (New Zealand) are aware this is a great opportunity. They are not going to get another opportunity like this for some time.”
“This Kiwi side won’t be overawed at all.”
But Cairns concedes the New Zealand top order has to fire if the visitors are to be any chance.
“Runs are going to be the key. If we can put 450-500 on the board we’re a definite chance – the best chance since ’85,” he said.
“Batting’s always (the problem). Bowling wise we’ve generally been okay through the years but batting has hindered us.”
On the other hand, Australia’s former batman, Mark Waugh, stated that if Ponting manages to score consistently, he should play for the country till he can.
”I think he’s invaluable with his experience for the other guys in the team, I think Michael Clarke has said that. But his bottom line is, his job is to score runs. The experience he brings, you can’t really count that. He’s got to score runs,” Waugh said.
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