Ricky's highlights

The pieces keep flowing about the Ricky Ponting; the shots, the catches, the run outs, the person, the controversies. For the Guardian, Andy Bull and Rob Smyth picked out six features that made Ponting who he was, helped by plenty of YouTube clips.

There has been a tendency to put most of the great modern batsmen in one of two categories: the blessed ones and the cussed ones, those who were born great and those who achieved greatness. It's a bit of an oversimplification, if not without merit. Ricky Ponting was right in the middle of that Venn diagram, both golden boy and grizzled streetfighter. He had the natural talent to play astonishing shots like this but could also will his way to runs, as he did in the 2011 World Cup quarter-final.

Back in Australia, in the Age, chief sports writer Martin Flanagan pays his tribute the Ponting and the fact he never forgot his roots.

I only met Ponting once. It was at a Tasmanian State League football match in Hobart between North Launceston and its great rivals at that time, Clarence. By this stage, he was a sportsman of international renown. He'd come down in the bus that morning with the North Launceston players. I respect the fact that Ponting has been true to his origins.