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'A proper cricket tragic...': Ricky Ponting opens up on his son's love for the sport
Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach and Australian cricket legend Ricky Ponting opened up on his son Fletcher's love for the sport and how he enjoys playing competitive cricket back in Australia and practice sessions with the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, which involves "20-30 throwdowns" from his father.
Ponting, who has been with the Capitals since 2018 as a head coach, said in an interview with ESPNCricinfo that his whole family has embraced the franchise over these years and travel to India to be along with them.
Fletcher, nine years of age, who Ponting termed a "proper cricket tragic", also travels with the team and has played some competitive cricket in Melbourne. He barely misses any practice session of DC and at the end of every session, he gets to hone his skills with his multi-time World Cup-winning father at the other end rolling over his arms for him. His bonding with the team started during the COVID-19 pandemic when he would play Playstation with the players and enjoy some breakfast and training with them.
"Our whole family has just really embraced the Delhi Capitals. We have been coming now for, guess, probably four or five years. They have been able to travel and be with the team. It probably all started to kick in when the whole IPL was in Mumbai [during the Covid-19 pandemic] and we lived in the bubble in the hotel, at the Taj, and for my kids and even Rianna [Ponting's wife] to be able to mix with the players and go and sit in the team room... Fletcher would go and play FIFA with them and sit on the PlayStation all day and have lunch and breakfast with the boys and then go to training," said Ponting.
"He is a proper cricket tragic now. He has just got to the age where he has played a couple of years of competitive cricket back in Melbourne. He just loves the game. He loves the team and gets a chance to hang out with the boys, and the boys look after him well. He's only missed a couple of training sessions since he's been here, but he will sit and watch and then he will just wait for his chance at the end of the day to put his pads on and go and face 20 or 30 throwdowns from me in the nets."
"Fletcher knows very well where he stands when it is cricket training. He gets nothing from me until the last ball is bowled and everyone has exited the net. So he sits and waits and then we go. He will honestly sit there for four hours and ask questions and talk with the boys and just wait for his turn. So he loves it," he concluded.
Ponting said that even his daughters, Emmy and Matisse Ellie are invested in the franchise and just cannot wait to join the DC franchise every year.
"Even when we are at home, they sleep in this stuff (Capitals jerseys). This is their pyjamas. Right through the year they are always just talking about the Delhi Capitals and can't wait to get back over there to the IPL, because what we've been able to do here is - and certainly we talk about it all the time - just really try and create one big family where everyone looks after each other and shares moments together. And my family's lucky to be a part of it," he added.
The former Australian great admitted that it is good for him to have his family around, a privilege he could not enjoy during tours while playing the sport.
"But my family only know one way as well: they only know me around cricket and cricket teams. They have a really good understanding of when it is cricket time when it is Dad's turn to work, and when they can share a part of the day after I am done. As simple as that," said Ponting.
"I am lucky there that my wife has always been accepting of what comes with me being a player or me being a coach. We try and divide our time as well as we can, but, yeah, they know when it is Dad's turn to go to work," concluded Ponting.
Coming to cricket, Ponting's franchise DC is at the sixth spot with five wins, six losses and 10 points. They lost their previous game to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and will take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium on May 7.