Punter's the Main Ashes Man

Six hours to go and counting! The Ashes are almost upon us and I cannot remember the last time there was so much excitement before an Australia versus England test series down under, probably because we English don't usually look forward to a hiding.

But this time it is different. This time we genuinely believe that England will retain the Ashes they won last year. To do so probably means avoiding defeat at the Gabba first up. To do so means Messrs Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Collingwood and Bell between them doing the business with the bat, and the three-pronged pace attack of Anderson, Broad and Finn, more than backed up by artful dodger Graeme Swann, taking 20 wickets in, hopefully, a minimum of three out of the five tests.

Yet while all the focus has been on England's near-perfect preparation for the Ashes, I still think much will depend on Ricky Ponting the captain, and Ricky Ponting the batsman.

He no longer has Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne to get Australia out of trouble with the ball, nor Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist with the bat. And maybe, just maybe, he is not quite the batsman he was.

But his wicket remains the big one. His stats make him the second greatest cricketer of all time (Don Bradman, Viv Richards and Brian Lara may argue with this) and with the motivation of not becoming the first Australian to captain three Ashes-losing sides, he remains a very dangerous animal.

When I played cricket with the Australians under Steve Waugh ten years ago the baby-faced "Punter" was the butt of friendly jokes from his teammates. One I recall was when Mark Waugh spotted a kids' tricycle and asked Ponting to move his bike.

Ten years on and the spotlight will be on the same man. If Ponting finds his form England could be in trouble. If not then the Ashes are halfway to staying in English hands.