Ricky's year of living famously
Comment by Ron Reed - Fox Sports
CRICKETER Ricky Ponting is Australia's sportsman of the year - and by a decent margin.
But his magnificent performances and commanding presence throughout 2003 have made him even more than that.
He now has no real rival for the status as the nation's pre-eminent sports figure.
The captain of Australian sport, if you like.
This is territory that has been occupied in the recent past by the likes of golfer Greg Norman, runner Cathy Freeman, swimmer Ian Thorpe, tennis player Pat Rafter and cricketers Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh.
With some of those names, it hasn't always been clear-cut. Thorpe and Freeman were doing great things at the same time, for instance - and the swimmer still is.
But they're the ones with the rare mix of extraordinary talent, achievement, character, inspiration and leadership that Australians like to believe is integral to our sporting culture.
It is why most of them have contributed to a heavy sporting bias in the Australian of the Year concept.
Ponting's domination was just about total. His 31 not out at the MCG on Tuesday gave him 1503 runs in Test cricket in 2003 - more than anyone else in the world - at an average of a whisker over 100, which is Bradman territory.
So are the three double centuries he scored, and it is difficult to believe that even The Don could have batted any better than Ponting has in compiling two of those mammoth innings in the past month.
He also scored a brilliant 140 not out - one of the best one-day innings ever seen - in the final of the World Cup in March, which Australia won under his leadership without dropping a match.
These numbers outstrip anything else any individual was able to contribute to Australian sport during the year, including some equally impressive batting by his teammate Matthew Hayden, who now holds the Test record score of 380.
The other contenders are probably headed by a trio of high-achieving women - Jana Pittman, Layne Beachley and Lauren Jackson.
Pittman's courageous win in the 400m hurdles at the track and field world championships, Beachley's sixth successive surfing world title and Jackson's Most Valuable Player award in American women's basketball were outstanding performances, and probably on a par with each other.
Another eye-catcher was sprinter Patrick Johnson, who became the first Australian to crack the 10-second barrier for the 100m. However, he couldn't hold his form for the world titles, and slid down the list.
Tennis star Lleyton Hewitt enjoyed a huge Davis Cup campaign, but his ranking in tournament play dropped away.
And footballer Jason McCartney's heroic comeback from the Bali atrocity caught everyone's imagination, but does not constitute a year of sporting greatness.
For towering numbers and sheer consistency, Ponting has outstripped them all.
The other feature of his stellar year was his appointment to succeed Waugh as the Test captain, meaning he takes charge of both Australian teams.
The prestige of the Test captaincy - often described as the sporting equivalent of the prime ministership - adds significantly to Ponting's standing among his peers from across the sports spectrum.
It sets him, or any holder of it, apart in a way that the leadership of other national teams - the Wallabies, say - does not.
Ponting's rise has been a great story given that he has got there from relatively humble beginnings in a working-class suburb of the Tasmanian town of Launceston, and via a rocky road that saw him in various forms of disciplinary trouble.
Now that he is there, he wears the mantle with ease and confidence, and with a pride that is never likely to be mistaken for arrogance.
After his huge innings at the MCG at the weekend, he was told he had joined Bradman and others in the record books, and the questioner waited for a response.
"To tell you the truth, I have no idea what you're talking about," he said. And he didn't.
Later, he agreed it was a nice feeling to be mentioned alongside the legends, but his focus was more on making sure Australia won the Test match.
There's nothing false about any of this. Ricky Ponting has arrived at his destiny and now it is just a matter of seeing how far it takes him. Australian sport is lucky to be going along for the ride.
