Ricky Thomas Ponting

Ricky Thomas Ponting (born 19 December 1974 in Launceston, Tasmania), nicknamed Punter, is the current captain of the Australian cricket team. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008. Ponting made his first-class debut for Tasmania in November 1992, when just 17 years and 337 days old, becoming the youngest Tasmanian to play in a Sheffield Shield match. However, he had to wait until 1995 before making his One Day International (ODI) debut, during a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand in a match against South Africa. His Test debut followed shortly after, when selected for the first Test of the 1995 home series against Sri Lanka in Perth, in which he scored 96. He lost his place in the national team several times in the period before early-1999, due to lack of form and discipline, before becoming One Day International captain in early-2002 and Test captain in early-2004. After being involved in over 139 Tests and 300 ODIs, Ponting is Australia's leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket, with more than 24,000 international runs as of February 2010. He has scored 39 Test centuries—behind only Indian Sachin Tendulkar (47)—and third for most runs in ODIs behind Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya and behind only Tendulkar for most centuries in the format.