Ponting the inflatable

Ricky Ponting has enough on his own plate without worrying about Andrew Flintoff, writes Mike Selvey.

Aside from his batting, we shouldn't worry too much about Ponting, whom one eminent Test cricketer of recent vintage, who is familiar with him, described to me as a panicker.

Following pedigree leaders such as Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh would always be a tough call but these words of wisdom come from someone who relinquished the hold on the Ashes that his predecessors had established, got in such a lather over substitute fielders that even Duncan Fletcher cracked a smile and who in Malaysia recently was forced to hand over his match fee following a rant over a wide delivery in a no-account game in a competition to match.