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As absurd as it may sound, but if you’re a 90s kid following Indian cricket, the term ‘spring bat’ may ring a bell. On March 24, 2003, when Ricky Ponting bludgeoned India with an unbeaten 140 in the final of the World Cup, the rumour that the former Australia captain played that game with a spring in his bat reached every Indian cricketing household.
Sporting the good old Kookaburra bat with the green sticker, Ponting’s Australia smashed Sourav Ganguly’s daredevils by 125 runs to win their third World Cup, breaking a million Indian hearts. But while they lifted the World Cup, the bizarre ‘spring bat’ theory became synonymous with Ponting everytime he played against or in India.
After 21 long years, the former Australia captain, now the head coach of the Delhi Capitals IPL franchise, has opened up on the raging ‘spring-bat’. Whether he used it, didn’t use it, Ponting has set the record straight on the topic once and for all.
“Spring bat? I’ve never even heard of a spring bat. What is a spring bat? Is it in the handle? Is it inside the face of the bat? I’ve never heard of it. Obviously been spoken about a lot here in India, not in Australia. There is no such thing as a spring bat. You should all go and do your homework,” Ponting said on Delhi Capitals TV during a fun interview.
So there you have it. No spring in his bat after all. Four years ago, as the world started to battle the Covid-19 pandemic, Ponting, in March of 2020, brought world cricket, and especially Indian cricket fans face-to-face, with his instrument of destruction from Johannesburg all those years ago, when he posted a picture of the bat he used to toy with India.
“Given we’ve all got a bit of time on our hands as we stay at home, thought I’d go through what I’ve kept from my career and share some of it with everyone on a regular basis – this is the bat I used in the 2003 World Cup final,” he had posted on X (formerly Twitter).
However, back in the early 2000s, two years removed from the World Cup final, when Ponting was part of the legendary 2005 Ashes series against England, it was revealed that Ponting played with a layer of graphite on the sticker at the back of his bat. The matter was raised to the MCC, and once Ponting’s graphite-enforced bat was called into question by the ICC, it was eventually deemed to be illegal.
Controversy arose in April of 2005 concerning the legality of Ricky Ponting’s Kookaburra bat, The Kahuna. The Marylebone Cricket Club, responsible for the laws of cricket, was approached by the ICC to investigate. The issue centered on the bat’s graphite coating, with the investigation aimed to determine if the coating complied with regulations regarding the blade’s composition and the maximum thickness of any covering materials.
“I’ve been using that bat for five or six years, it’s just the sticker that’s changed this year. I’ve just had a real laugh at it so far, I’ve not really thought too much about it or where it started from,” Ponting had said.
Additionally, they examined whether the ball sustained damage beyond typical wear from willow contact. Incidentally, from December 2003 until the matter was reported, Ponting averaged 70.57 in Tests and 42.57 in ODIs.
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