5 Times captains cheated on the field

2. Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting is probably one of the toughest players the sport has ever seen. The former Australian skipper was good at almost everything, be it captaincy, batting or fielding. However, there are some incidents which Ponting would go on to regret after this illustrious career. In the 2008 New Year’s Test in Sydney, Australia was up against India.

After four days of some poor umpiring decision, the match was in balance and it seemed as if it will end in a draw. Indian batsmen Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were batting and the duo was involved in a good partnership. Ganguly nicked one to the slips and Micheal Clarke took a catch, or we should say it seemed he took it. Ganguly didn’t leave the crease thinking it had bounced in front of Clarke.

The umpires were taking some time but Ponting didn’t like that. Ganguly was given out by the umpire without any confirmation from the third umpire. Later it was seen that Ponting had pointed to umpire Mark Benson and said it was out after the umpire decided to adjudged Ganguly out. As it turned out, the ball had also bounced before going into Clarke’s hands.

Earlier in the same Test, Ponting had claimed a catch of MS Dhoni, which the TV replays showed had cleared bounced in front of him. During a press conference, Ponting was asked about this and as one would expect, Ponting wasn’t too kind with the journalists.