Mohammad Kaif drops a massive truth bomb on the reason as to why Ricky Ponting was sacked as Delhi’s Head coach?

[8:17 AM, 11/19/2024] divyansh mishra airtel:
The Delhi Capitals prepare to embark on a fresh journey with a new coaching staff. Ricky Ponting, who spent seven years with the team, has taken up the position of a mentor with the Punjab Kings. Thus, the task remained too daunting for the franchise as they enlisted the help of the great Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly, who joined Ricky Ponting in attempts to help DC win this elusive title. However, Delhi has yet to register a win in the IPL. Similar to Ponting, Ganguly has moved on to pursue other endeavours. When it comes to pacing perfection, Mohammad Kaif who also came on board as a coaching staff poses that when it came to Ponting’s conduct as a mentor, he crossed several lines, which caused the franchise top officials to look for other options.

“Ponting has done everything he could. He has made that cardinal mistake that everyone, including me, Ganguly and a few others, believes he should have despised so much by this stage. I mean, in the team that we had, I am not surprised that they said which Ajinkya Rahane, Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Hetmyer, and so forth. As for the auction… this was decided by Ganguly and I must give him credit for that,” KAIF added in a clip shared through his social.

This is because Kaif mentioned as an instance the trade involving Shikhar Dhawan which kickstarted the tactical foray of Sunrisers Hyderabad. On the contrary, Kaif has gone as far as stating that Ponting was against the trade, and it was only on the insistence of Ganguly that he had to relent.

“And that left us in a dilemma whether we can make that trade or not, it was Ganguly who persuaded us that we have to have him. And he could not do this. According to him, his career was virtually finished as he got dropped from the Test team at that period. In fact, this was discussed in the meeting, that Dhawan is an asset and can get 500 runs in a season. Pointing had David Warner in Hyderabad, and he must have persuaded Ponting not to go with Dhawan. I think he must have told Ponting that he is no longer that kind of player. But Sangakara and Parth Jindal were silent supporters of Dhawan so he was traded, and the India batter rightfully so as if we were about to reach the final that season which he batted a lot in. So I think that Ponting has had regrets about the fact that this time I would do much better because they did not lift any trophies for that period of seven years. Actually, sticking to the facts, Ganguly should take the due credit of bringing Ashwin in the squad as well,” he said.”

Following the 2024 IPL season, Ponting was sacked by the Delhi outfit. Kaif feels DC must have decided that the former Australian captain had no further strategies to guide the men on the pitch. Hence, he had to be relieved of his duties

“The franchise owner must have felt that this time Ponting didn’t have any good game plans to present. Now, Ponting is a very big name. He is in that category of names like Sachin Tendulkar. Now, if a franchise says ‘thank you very much’ and moves on from him, it means they think he is not sharp enough with his game plans anymore.”

Kaif also pointed out that there was another blunder of a grand scale on the part of Ponting after he took charge in Punjab Kings. The very fact that the franchise chose to dispose of key players such as Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada and Liam Livingstone outlines the mindset of the management. Kaif thinks that the three players should have been kept.

“He has now gone to Punjab, and he has adopted the same strategy as the former coaches: keeping some of the players but more importantly keeping a large budget. They were wrong, I felt. Look at the Mumbai Indians. They came in last, but managed to keep most of their key players, because they were sure they will someday win the title. They believed in the same set of players regardless of how much they could be worth. This is what Ponting has done which is similar to what has been done by previous PBKS coaches and I don’t like that. While it would have been possible to keep hold of Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada and Liam Livingstone as well. There’s no assurance, however, that the same player can be retained by a franchise at the auction but for lower cost,” he stated.”