The height of Ponting's fear

(Tendulkar, Lara - the pocket dynamoes)

When he is not talking about things like on-field etiquette, sportsman spirit and how-to-behave-in-a-pub, Ricky Ponting talks sense. At worst, his words can be thought-provoking.

Punter's most recent observation is that hulks like Kevin Pietersen and Matthew Hayden are overshadowing pint-sized bats like him, Sachin Tendulkar and Brain Lara . He fears cricket is all set to become a game of the towering players and players of his stature might feel like dwarf among giants.

Incidentally, Ponting's words apparently vindicate the recent BBC-commissioned survey which attempts to shatter the popular myth that little men are more aggressive, a notion that gained popularity since a 5'6" Napoleon Bonaparte picked a fight with rest of Europe.

Researchers claimed the 'Napoleon complex' or 'Short Man Syndrome' is in fact a myth and now Ponting airs the same view.

Since Don Bradman picked up a bat and the game was graced by such run-machines like Sunil Gavaskar, Javed Miandad, Tendulkar, Lara and Ponting , it never felt -- the bigger, the better. On the contrary, these big little men strode like giants despite their short height.

Interestingly, Thomas T Samaras, a Director and Senior Researcher at Reventropy Associates in San Diego, and his associates have published a number of papers in scientific and medical journals on the positive aspects of shorter height and they claim little men have faster reaction times, greater ability to accelerate body movements, stronger muscles in proportion to body weight, greater endurance, and the ability to rotate the body faster.

Naturally, shorter people excel as gymnasts, divers, skiers, martial artists, rock climbers, figure skaters, rodeo riders, soccer players and long distance runners and within their weight classes, they are excellent wrestlers, boxers, and weight lifters too!

Personally, this "growing" trend does not bother me either. At 5'8", I find enough solace in the facts that shorter people are less likely to break a hip from falling and die in auto crashes! That explains why I prefer to remain so "down-to-earth", at least physically.

Border, Lehmann Won't Let Sunny Off The 'Hookes'

This is spreading faster than a wild bushfire that Australia is so used to. Sunil Gavaskar’s blunt talk is likely to cost him his long-standing friendship with Allan Border. Gavaskar also apparently lost the admirer in a seething Darren Lehmann.

Sunny first stepped on a few Australian toes when he described the Aussies as the unpopular winners. Ricky “Punter the Huner” Ponting hit back soon at the big little man -- “Mr Perfect” in his words- and accusing him of being “high and mighty”.

Gavaskar stoked the fire again, saying the foul-mouth (he insisted he was not generalising) Aussies might get “whacked” in a bar if they behave like the way they do on-field. Here he cited the death of former cricketer David Hooke, who was punched to death by a bouncer outside a Melbourne bar three years ago.

This was probably least expected from a man of Sunny’s stature and you don’t need to have an Australian passport to admit that dragging the deceased doesn’t sound decent, especially when Hooke’s was a tragic end.

An upset Border says his 20-year friendship with Sunny is strained to a breaking point, while Lehmann says he has lost respect for the Indian legend.

Meanwhile, as it snowballs into a major distraction during World Cup, both Gavaskar and Border would do well to read the following joke:

Gavaskar was specially flew into Australia for premier of a movie called “GAVASKAR”. Sunny was conned into beliving that it was his bio-pic but he felt humiliated as the film ended without any trace of cricket, let alone Sunny. Left red in the face, he asked the authorities why they played the joke. “It was revenge Mr Gavaskar. You people too made a movie called BORDER and did they mention Allan for once?” pat came the reply.