Cricket Australia Chief Roberts Eyeing To Bring Ricky Ponting And Steve Waugh As Mentors

Of late, especially, after the ban on their top-class players, Australia underwent a lot of troubles. They have suffered across the formats with the lack of team balance. However, with the ban period of the players coming to an end and the grand event ICC World Cup 2019 is around the corner, the Cricket Australia chief Roberts is eyeing to bring in Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh.

He wants both the stalwart players to travel with the team for the upcoming major event. Roberts understands that the duo can’t be available for a whole year but he is trying to involve them for the ICC World Cup 2019. Not only Ponting or Waugh, but Roberts also wants to have a look at other former cricketers of Australia.

Their opinion matters – Roberts

“There’s no doubt that the remuneration in cricket for players is far higher than the remuneration for coaches,” Roberts told ESPNcricinfo. “We don’t have an unlimited pool of funds to invest in coaches, but certainly we want to be investing as much as we can, and navigating those challenges as best we can. I think there’s opportunities to utilise some of those ex-players in shorter bursts if you like, given they’re not all in a position to be a coach 52 weeks of the year either, given their other commitments in other parts of the game.

He believes that the experience of the ex-cricketers is very much needed for the current team of Australia. He wants them to have a close look at the game by taking the mentor role for the current team. Roberts is hopeful that they can put the best deal forward for the ex-players.

“I think it’s really important that we do involve those ex-players in the game more and give them a stronger voice, embrace their perspective to a greater degree, and whether that means that’s just in open forums where we invite their feedback on some of cricket’s big questions or whether it’s involving them in a mentoring capacity or in a formal coaching capacity, we want to be covering all those bases and utilising all the expertise they’ve got.

I have a good relation with Steve Waugh:

Roberts wants to fancy his chances by utilising his 25-year bond in order to convince Steve Waugh. Further, he believes that the players like Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, McGrath are the few, who can help the team.

“I’ve got a really good relationship with Steve Waugh and I’ve been fortunate to have had that for I guess 25 years now, and he’s one of the most universally respected people in our game. Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, see them regularly around the commentary boxes,” Roberts added.

‘So to be able to just get a sense check of how they’re feeling about the game, Ricky Ponting I played quite a bit against, and unfortunately he ran me out one day with a direct hit run out, so I don’t remember that fondly but I do really respect Ricky’s views on the game as well,” he inferred.

Well, it seems like Roberts is pretty much excited to bring the ex-players in the dressing room for the major event. Most probably, few players would like to have a look in, especially, in the current circumstances.