The trouble and strife.

[Donny]

Days of our wives

By Robert Craddock


THE kiss that floated across the Adelaide Oval yesterday told a poignant story.

Not simply of a man and his wife but a team who have moved with the times and taken their families with them.

Ponting's old mates from his schooldays in Launceston probably fell into their Boag's bitters when they saw their no-nonsense buddy making such a public show of affection to his wife of 17 months Rianna yesterday.

But Ponting's life and his career changed direction almost from the December night in Melbourne a few years ago when he and Andrew Bichel wandered into a restaurant and spotted his future wife at a nearby table.

He is a man at peace with his world and it is showing in his cricket. Ponting's pre-Rianna Test average was 37. Now it has surged to 54.

Down through the generations Australia has never treated wives as well as they should have.

When Don Bradman toured England in the 1930s and 40s wives were not allowed to be in the same country. Players were absent for nine months at a time and on average made one phone call home such was the primitive state of communications.

An English tabloid broke news of Australia's decision not to allow wives to come on the 1948 tour with the clever post-war headline "Australia rules the wives."

It is something more than a coincidence that Australia's blinding run of form over the past four years has coincided with a conscious push to treat wives and families of the players better than ever before.

A fledgling sub-committee of the Australian team has been set up to handle the interests of the families and Mel Gilchrist, Rianna Ponting, Kellie Hayden and Anna Gillespie have had two phone hook-ups in recent months to plan for the needs of the families. Australia would have been a great team no matter how their families were treated but there is a theory the improvement in family welfare has made the side more consistent because the players are less prone to mood swings.

For decades wives and families were considered a distraction on cricket tours and some countries still think this way. Pakistan banned wives from the World Cup and batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq, who fretted desperately for family, barely hit a ball off the square during the tournament, cutting a morose figure on and off the field.

Australia encourages wives to come whenever possible and during set times overseas, not just in single rooms but family suites.

When Steve Waugh took over as Australian captain four years ago and was joined at the coaching helm by father-of-five John Buchanan one of their first lines to Cricket Australia was "what about the families?"

The importance of a settled relationship was spelt out by Allan Border in a timeless quote uttered 14 years ago ... "to be a long-serving international player you have to be happy in your relationship and have an understanding wife - or single. Anything in between is a problem."

The Australian team - like any collection of 11 individuals in a society where one marriage in three dissolves - has seen its share of broken relationships.

Many of Australia's most successful players of recent times have married their childhood sweethearts.

The delightful Lynnette Waugh was Steve's first serious girlfriend. They've been together since the days he was an impoverished teenager and Waugh's first book told a story of the day he picked her up in a car which at the time drove only in reverse.

Mel Gilchrist has shared every step of Adam's rise to stardom since they were schoolmates at Kabarlah High School in northern NSW and Sue and Justin Langer were also united at a similar age.

[piedys]

Donny,
Reminds me about the story of how James Manson met his wife.
Collingwood went to America in 1988 with Geelong and Hawthorn to play exhibition matches after the season finished. Apparently when he and Matty Ryan went out for dinner one night, James spotted his wife-to-be at a nearby table, and sent Matty over to her "on a mission". We know Matt was a decent looking bloke, a smooth talker with the gift-of-the-gab. This decoy obviously worked as i'm pretty sure she moved to Australia soon after that to marry James.

Dyso