Cricket is in Ponting's debt

Australia batsman Ed Cowan pays tribute to Ricky Ponting in the Australian. While Ponting liked making runs, Cowan says, what he really liked was winning cricket matches - that was absolutely everything to him.

Cricket was his world: reeling off grade scores from the newspaper; picking up every single bat in the change room to see "how it feels"; and throwing balls for hours to anyone who asked, he gave himself completely to the game of cricket.

Cricket was his education. He joined it as a boy and learned life's lessons with everyone watching. It did not make him cynical but rather, wise. He became an eloquent, worldly and intelligent man.