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Why McGrath was so hard to lead: Ponting

Former Test skipper has a cheeky dig at the pace legend for his reaction to being removed from the attack

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has cheekily claimed Glenn McGrath was the most difficult player he had to handle in his time as skipper, simply because the pace legend would fume whenever he was taken out of the attack.



Speaking on BT Sport's coverage of the first Commonwealth Bank Test between Australia and South Africa in Perth, Ponting and former England skipper Michael Vaughan fielded some viewer questions about their time as captain.

When Ponting was asked to name the most difficult player he had to captain, the veteran of 168 Tests negotiated the tricky question brilliantly.

"I'm going to make a bit of a joke of it - Glenn McGrath was the hardest player for me to captain," he said.

Image Id: D119826467884D848C667473785D21C7 Image Caption: Ponting and McGrath during the 2006-07 Ashes series // Getty

"Everyone will sit back and think that he's the easiest, that you give him the ball, he comes on and he'd do a job for you. And yes, that's right, but at some stage you had to try and get the ball off him as well.

"I'd tell him 'that's enough mate, have a rest' and for the next 10 or 15 minutes he'd be walking around with his sleeve over his mouth calling me every name under the sun.

"He'd stand down at fine leg and he'd be abusing all the crowd just because he wasn't bowling."

While McGrath often gave Ponting grief when it came time to change the attack, the paceman was an outstanding servant to his skipper during their decade together in Australia's Test side.

Twenty-five of McGrath's 124 Tests came with Ponting as captain, as well as 96 of his 375 one-day internationals, and the pair enjoyed five Ashes series victories together as well as three World Cup triumphs.

McGrath took 115 Test wickets when Ponting was captain as well as 147 in ODIs when Ponting was in charge.

Image Id: 9EB047B77B554252837F3E3212EB60DD Image Caption: Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and McGrath with the 2007 World Cup // Getty

For his part, Vaughan said even the easiest players to deal with as captain needed special attention at times.

"I think every single player in the team will cause you some stress at some time," the 2005 Ashes-winning skipper said.

"Even the real nice ones; Andrew Strauss is the poshest lad in the world, but even at times Strauss might be tricky because he'd have low moments. Ashley Giles would have low moments.

"And they're the times that you really get tested as a captain - when you try to calm a player who is under pressure, when the press are saying he shouldn't (be in the team).

"There's always one or two players that are under pressure and they're the times when you have to spend a little more time with those people."