The former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif has opened on Australian legend Ricky Ponting leaving the Delhi Capitals franchise ahead of IPL 2025.
Delhi Capitals are looking to build a new empire under a new coaching staff, Hemang Badani who has been named as DC head coach after Ricky Ponting parted ways with the franchise.
Kaif who worked with DC as a member of the coaching staff said that many mistakes were made by Ponting during his stint as the team’s mentor and hence, the franchise bosses decided to move on.
“I think Ponting would himself admit he could have done better because the team we made, me, Ganguly…you won’t believe there were times we could think whom should we drop.”
“There was no place for Ajinkya Rahane, Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, even Hetmyer. Then when we went to the auction…this was Ganguly who decided and I must praise him for that.”
“He said we have to back the Indian players. He talked to Shikhar Dhawan, after which that trade had happened with Hyderabad,” said Kaif.
Kaif cited the example of Shikar Dhawan’s trade from Sunrisers Hyderabad, which proved to be a masterstroke for the franchise. However, Kaif has claimed that Ponting didn’t want the trade to take place, but was convinced by Ganguly to go ahead.
“Now we were stuck still thinking if we should make the trade, and it was Ganguly who convinced us that we needed him.”
“Ponting did not agree. He felt his career was over, because it was right when he was dropped from the Test team. In fact, this thing was highlighted in the meeting that Dhawan is a trusted player who can score 500 runs in a season.”
“David Warner was in Hyderabad, and I feel he must have influenced Ponting against going with Dhawan. I feel he must have told Ponting that he no longer remains a great player.”
“But Ganguly and Parth Jindal backed Dhawan and traded him, and the India batter proved us right because we had reached the final that season where he scored a lot of runs.”
“So I feel Ponting might have regretted that he would have done better because they did not win a trophy in those seven years. In fact, Ganguly should be credited for bringing Ashwin to the team as well,” he claimed.
Kaif feels that DC must’ve felt that Ponting has no plans to lead the tropps. Hence, he had to part ways with the franchise.
“The franchise owner must have felt Ponting no longer had good game plans. Now, Ponting is a huge name. He is in that Sachin Tendulkar category. Now, if a franchise tells him ‘thank you so much’ and parts ways, that means they feel that he is looking flat with his game plans.”
Kaif also pointed out a big mistake that Ponting made after joining Punjab Kings. He said that letting go of top players like Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada and Liam Livingstone is a mistake and wants the trio to be part of PBKS retained players list.
“Now, he went to Punjab, and he followed the same tactic as the old coaches, retaining a few players and keeping a bigger purse. I felt they were wrong. Look at the Mumbai Indians.”
Despite finishing last, they retained their core players because they believed that they could still win a title. They backed the same players irrespective of their value.”
“What Ponting did is the same as previous PBKS coaches and I’m not a fan of that. They could have retained Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada and Liam Livingstone.”
“See, there is no guarantee that a franchise can retain the same player at an auction for a lesser price,” he said.
The IPL governing council has decided to organize IPL 2025 mega auction between November 24 and 25 in Jeddah.
Despite the event being hosted overseas, IPL fans can still enjoy the IPL 2025 auction live streaming from their home.
As a part of the season, BCCI will release the IPL 2025 schedule, IPL 2025 squad, IPL 2025 live streaming, IPL 2025 ticket booking links, and IPL 2025 team jersey details right before the start of the tournament.
