Ponting: 'Cricket is only a game'

In his column in the Australian, Ricky Ponting writes about why it was time to be a husband first and a cricketer second when he looked after his ill wife, how a police escort rushed him to the ICC Awards night, and whether Alex Kountouris, the team physio, thinks Ponting should play Australia’s opening game at the ICC World Twenty20.

Alex grabbed me during the awards night and asked me if I was going to be right to play and I said "absolutely" but that indicates to me that he and a few others might think differently. A lot of the guys are still having trouble sleeping after being here a week, so with the schedule I've been on, I expect to be waking up early over the next few days at least. That mightn't help my cause.

In the Courier-Mail, Robert Craddock reflects on Ponting’s rise from impish scallywag to Australia’s best batsman since Bradman.

Being a star has never stopped Ponting from being himself, as evidenced by the journey, the night before an Ashes tour, when he travelled in the back of a mate's car with one of his racing greyhounds from Launceston to Hobart, feeding the dog a celebratory Kit Kat on the way home after it won at $13.

Craddock also looks at the tug-of-war that is developing for the Twenty20 services of Glenn McGrath.

In the Age, Chloe Saltau speaks to Mr Cricket, Michael Hussey, about his four-month break from the game, during which his wife gave birth three months prematurely.