#218: Ricky Ponting on the Ashes, Pat Cummins, Indian cricket & stories you’ve never heard before

really funny welcome mate nice to be you mate it's pretty pretty timely now I mean like uh the ash is on at the moment like uh one one down and we've got another one coming up a couple weeks a week so a week time and how you going I'm going well it's um yeah as you say it's it's good timing for me to come in and talk about cricket wine now we're going to have wine no no no no no no there's no cricket here this is where it's all about wine that's right man it's good time it's Christmas time we're going to talk about wine yeah we will talk about wine we'll move on to that no yeah I mean it it's a good time you know there's two things in the world I don't know a little bit about one's cricket and one's wine you're going to ask me anything else today don't don't really bother but that's pretty good actually but by the way we're going to be exploring something it's it's it's it's funny thing I've I've always thought about you and I you know as a kid like everyone as a kid in Australia at least my it definitely my replay cricket and you always I was never a good cricket but like you looked at the good cricketers in your side like we're in my place same as I was a guy called Graham Hughes I don't know if you remember Graham Hughes and there was something about their face that I used to notice when I was a kid and I'm just looking at you no seeing the same thing there's something about and I don't know if the hell sort of deep into this year we'll observe but cricketers have eyes their eyes are usually a little closer together and look very straight to me do you think that there is actually a physiological trait that makes a cricketer did you actually heard this the last couple of years and I've never really I've never heard a bit never even thought about it before and I had obviously not as not as sharp as you're picking those things up because I'd never noticed it around anyone that I'd ever played with but it come up a couple years ago about about minus Lavershane actually about him my when he sort of was having that really good run when he came into the Aussie team someone mentioned something about it then but I I'd never heard of it or thought of it I mean the only thing I ever get talked about with my eyes is that they're a little bit squintier than most that's not more squinting in the mind that's oh they are when you smile yeah we're up there together we might have some sort of genetic connection without it that's bad it I can't play cricket but no and it was more batsman and fielders they have this ability to have because their eyes are sort of semi-closed together I don't mean close together but like they're not spread across their head like some other some other people and they have this ability to really focus on the board I mean I'm I've often wondered what someone like you who's reached the highest levels in cricket what's someone like you thinks about the physical characteristics that makes a great cricketer what's in the interesting interesting point going back about the eye thing but at the back end of my career we did a study up in Brisbane actually Queensland University was doing a study on what made the really good international player better than the really good grade player and it was all about their eyes and how we how we tracked and watched the ball you know did we watch did the best players watch the ball longer did they watch the ball differently you know what did they do so we we we had these sort of glasses and reflectors and everything that was set up to and we're on a ball machine and these these glasses actually picked up every slight little movement of your of your eyes to how you're watching the ball and all of us did a little bit differently to be honest like someone like my cousin Justin Langer watched the ball after I'm at the bat and after impact the big thing that showed up with me was that I only looked at I only looked at the bottom 5% of the ball so when the ball was coming down the wicket not the whole ball not the whole ball no so my my actual focus point was on the bottom 5% of the ball which was different than what everyone else did as well but when you think when you start breaking things then like that it actually sort of rung a bit of a bill with me as to why I could do certain things in the game that the other other players probably weren't quite as good at so if you think about through my career like I was probably able to pick length up quicker than most as a baseman mean to the ball yeah length of the ball so where where it was pitching and I was able to play pool shots to balls that were a little bit full of the others and then when I thought about that maybe that was because I was I was actually looking at the part of the ball that was actually hitting the wicket first so if you're looking at the top of the ball obviously there's a there's going to be longer before you can pick up which when the ball is actually landing on the wicket so that might have been one thing to learn the other thing when you mention it then about about batting and catching so I always when I was feeling in the slips always caught with my fingers pointing to the sky which was unusual at most other slip filters would catch with their fingers pointing down and then when I started thinking about that I think that was probably because if I was only ever looking at the bottom of the ball the majority of the ball was always above my eyes totally and it made it easier to catch that way than this way so that's interesting that's really interesting things that the I only learned probably when it was too late because it was the last couple of years in my career but because there's not about physicality because in terms of size for example like um because you got people like you know sometimes the giants and you go to everyone's there's great cricketers in all different size categories you know even they're like well most of the great batters have all been short is that right yeah through the history of the game like border Gavasca Tendulka Lahara myself a lot of the batters have been under a lot under six feet tall so that also I think I think there's something in that with picking up the length of the ball maybe a little bit quicker than what the the bigger taller guys can now the the game has evolved the last you know 15 years with with more and more t20 cricket being played so we've got we've got a lot of bigger stronger athletes now than we probably did but yeah you look back through history most of the batsmen have been pretty short because if I look at it just just by my way of comparison if I just pick on rugby league for a second um rugby leagues change the physicality that plays a much more athletic um their taller they run quicker they do everything better basically but it's become very athletic um his cricket going on that path was it sort of staying at his traditional levels in terms of um the sorts of characteristics you're talking about now I think we I probably played in a semi professional professional and ultra professional era to be honest so when I first started things were pretty semi professional you know we were we the way that we trained and prepared and and even um rehabbed and and that sort of thing was what do you mean semi professional you'll be more chilled yeah I mean the the level of detail now that the boys go into like getting ready and getting prepared and how many balls are allowed to bowl the training and the workloads that they're on and um you know getting up first in the morning doing a urine sample to make sure that you're that you're hydrated for the day I'm reading your body weight at the end of every session that you play and things like that like it it's it's got to a pretty a pretty high point now professionalism which wasn't there when I was playing with Boone let's put it that way we were doing those things back then so um yeah it's you know and and it looked back and it's so probably the semi professional is probably the most most fun time to play as well where you could probably get a wild a little bit more than you can well you could all get away more stuff because there was there was none of these things or fires well a lot less at risk maybe you've got to go back to your your kid from Tasmania when you were on Tasmania is it right yep and uh mum dad both together at the time yeah brother sisters uh younger brother younger sister both three years apart yep so how does uh I mean you see I see parents today yeah I'm a grandparent so I see my own kids doing it with their kids trying to kick a football to him or give him a cricket bat and like you know just go on hit the ball either ball was that Ricky Pointing's life like uh was he you know three years of age and someone handed him a cricket bat and just dad started throwing a ball to you yeah well when I say that people say well what else is there to do in tazie anyway you know you can play cricket in the summer you can play football in the winter nothing else to do but now look I was I was born into a sporting family but dad was a very time of a sportsman in most sports that he played you know scratch golfer at 14 a grade cricket at my club played top level Aussie rules footies well as a young worker in tazie um and mum was a bit the same mum played pretty high level badminton and a sport called vigaro which I think is but actually played here in yourself well as um it was like a almost like a female version of cricket a long time ago um with a different shape batten rather than bowling at the the two balls actually through the ball they both got a good eye hand coordination yeah my my uncle played cricket for Australia Greek Campbell went on the 89 ashes tour so that's on your mum's side on mum's side yeah that's interesting in your mum playing uh badminton um that that's sort of fairly serious eye hand coordination yeah I wonder whether you got if you look at facial features of yourself and your mum are you more look do you look more like your mum facial features around here no more like your dad I'll show you when we finish yeah when are you down my dad are almost identical really yeah time believable people say it all the time um yes I'll show you some photos so the all man used to throw a ball at your mum yeah and like any kid growing up it was just it was kids in the neighborhood you know kids that that around your sort of area that was similar sort of age or even for me because I was recently good at I guess I was always playing with the bigger boys so I just any game that was happening anywhere I just wanted to go and be a part of so that was cricket in the summer and I was even was 40 in the wintertime and to be honest I love I love both of those games equally in fact I probably enjoyed playing 40 more than I did cricket when I was a kid there's a bit more of a well if it's a team aspect is the right side of it be it just had a chance to be able to let a little bit of steam off with a bit of physicality in 40 that you could never sort of do in cricket and I sort of always enjoyed that so would you would you would you have been one of those kids and I'm I'm major speaking I'm sort of having fine memories of this but one of those kids who there were I don't know where you lived but like you lived in Launceston didn't you yeah it was a lame way the back or it was a park out there and you had a garbage tin and a crappy old bat and or you'd find whatever you could make do yeah playing how big the game was if it was just me and my mum and dad and my brother would just be in the backyard probably but if there was a game going on them there was a park just down the bottom of the hill from where we lived that you might have 15 or 20 kids taken part in a either a taped up tennis ball game or if one of us had a cricket ball then it'd be a cricket ball flown all over the place so that was where I sort of you know learnt the game learnt the love for the game and and everything started happening pretty quickly for me after that you know I was playing competitive cricket at you know grade five at school which was that was the earliest we could play back then there was no sort of it's like eleven yeah ten or eleven probably yeah yeah yep so you know now there are all sorts of junior programs where you can be playing competitive games at seven eight nine years of age but there was none of that when I was growing up in tazi you had to wait until you had your school cricket in grade five and so play grade five grade six and then into junior comps and then that's where it all started yeah we we we we were driven kids like the other day I had the opportunity to interview Mick fanning and um he told me about um his style of preparing for a well-serving competition and he goes into what he calls cyborg mode cyborg like don't talk to anyone I shut down um I train I eat I sleep etc and he does it like say 12 weeks before an event big event um completely and utterly committed of course once the events over he goes into another mode and uh and and has some fun but his ricky ponding was he as a young person or is it something became more as you got more professional as as the game evolved where you always I want to win his bloody thing and I'm going to be the best on field 100% 100% like the way I train and prepared probably better and harder than anyone that I've played with that was from a kid's age in this sheffield shield cricket as a 17-year-old um into the Australian team as a 20-year-old I pride myself on working hard at getting the most out of myself and and and the other side of that is well like I've always said this you know I eventually became Tasmania captain eventually became Australian captain but because I was always I was always the young person in every team that I played in so leadership roles for me at an early age didn't come because I was you know I'm 13 in the under 17s and I'm 15 in the under 19s and I'm 17 in the tazi team but even though it was the youngest one always try to set a great example because I thought I thought I could bring something to a team whether it was school wise whether it was energy wise that that would be able to make other people better so I was always I was always thinking along along those lines so um when I think that's why eventually leadership ended up sitting pretty well with me I I enjoyed that responsibility of being a leader and and and it being my team and standing up for my team so preparation made I think it's it's different with an individual sport so we're surfing like that you can do that right big no you got no one else you need to worry about but with a with a cricket team and shark yeah these issues with those as well which I don't know how he's ever got back in the water as a result of that to be honest but um when you're in a team you've always got someone else to be thinking there's always someone that you you want to work with or want to help out so you can't sort of just lock yourself away it can be very disciplined with what you do with your own training and preparation but you know you're turning up to training with 15 other guys for instance on a on a national tour and um and and coaches and staff and everything so it's much more of a inclusive environment around a cricket team than it would be around an individual sport you said you are in your early stages you wouldn't have called yourself a leader but sometimes if you see I just remember when in tennis sports anyway and in business for that matter too if I see a young person who is maybe knows the experiences of everybody else and maybe just normal talent um but if I see them really putting in and others say them really putting into some extent I think that is a formal leadership um they're leading by example I mean was that something were you conscious of that like did you know that if I put in hard I'm you know I'm 15 when all the rest of 20 or I'm 12 when all the rest of 16 what are the case would be if I work really hard I'm actually going to be sort of semi-motivate the rest of the guys around me yeah absolutely you're aware of it yeah I was aware of it but I wasn't trying to impress anyone no no no it was just too I wasn't what I wanted to what I wanted to become you know so it wasn't like I hope Steve Warwatches me train really hard today or hope the coaches noticing I'm doing this it was more about as you say the energy and wanting to make my teammates better because at the end of the day you're in a team if you can make if you can make your mates around you a couple of percent better a day when you're already part of the good team then the sky's the limit on what you can achieve as a group right so that was the attitude I always had and then as I said eventually the the cap and see came and then it went to another level there where it was you know the the the older I got more than I played the more aware I was all that example you know I was I was always the first one at breakfast every morning I was a first one on the training track I was the last one to leave the training track if there was someone that was struggling with their game then I stayed with him the nets through balls to him for hours at the end of training um because I wanted to do that not because I wanted someone to see it I wanted to make those guys in my team the best that they could be so when you're in when you're in my team or the way I used to describe it when you were in my tent then I was going to do whatever I could to make sure that you were the best player that you could be and that you would stain my tent for as long as possible that's really that's that's full leadership I mean no matter how I'll try that that is full leadership what would you like you of obviously have often reflected on yourself I mean we just we tend to those special we get past 50 yeah which I'm just think I know I know such as we give the past 50 um would you say that Ricky pointing particularly these early years was more talent than hard work which was made successful or was it more hard work than talent than many successful what would you say to even because we see let we see Sam consists of like yeah like how's that all works like it was because there's a big picture you're just drawn it's not just you know like train hard it was I mean I mean no doubt I was born with my sheer first year natural talent and then we'll go back to those early days so I played all of grade five and all of grade six all primary school cricket two years in a row didn't get out once wow didn't get out once in fact and then all of you ten and all of your eleven I think I got out once in those two years of senior cricket so I got run out I got run out once so I think I was out of baseball I think was the the opposition coaches fight I reckon I was involved about this far but he gave me run out it gave me run out anyway um so the talent was there for me and then it with with Dad like I said with Dad like Dad Dad was good at everything he did sporting wise but he he would rather just turn up and do all these mates and have a few beers on a Friday night and then have a few more beers at the end of the game on a Saturday night I was and there was probably no career for him back then either I was just he just wanted to play no money in a yeah because he was good at it but when I came along I think he saw a fair bit of himself in in me and it was like right I'm not going to let you waste it like I potentially wasted it and then not to the point where he ever pushed me in any way at all I mean he'd be hard on maybe with certain things and pretend he didn't know about how many runs I scored that day and we get home at dinner and he'd say I had to go to day and I'd say yeah yeah okay Dad went all right um my first ever game at junior 40 under 13s I was like 11 I would never played once again never played a competitive game a football before I must have had 50 kicks and kicked five goals in my first ever junior game I remember sitting around the dinner and saying well that nine dad was there watching and he said I had you here today so yeah all right all right I kicked five goals and he said well why didn't you kick six goals like it was probably the best part of the greatest game at junior 40 ever played and I still got the question why I didn't do that little bit better but he's sure that he put goals of only that yeah yeah I didn't read he let it it didn't set goals of of what he wanted me to achieve but he just made it really clear that with the talent that I had that if I feel putting the hard work then good things would come basically so it was always a pretty simple model in our house it if you're willing to put in you'll get something back out if you're not willing to do the hard work don't expect anything to come back your way so that was that was the way that I always lived and trained and still do now so it was pretty simple messaging but it got it hit the point so you're talking about it being a team game I just want to go back to the 2006 2007 side this reign side obviously um you were the captain of it um the names in that team like and I'm not reflecting on today's teams but the just the names and the historical sense in that team were pretty amazing um how they were but we're just lost in oh five yeah so we did we just lost in England oh five which was the lowest point of my playing and probably captaincy career that that that series I mean it was was at the same side I reckon it exactly identical I don't know we made any oh no we got back Damien Martin might have been out of the side um the Damien Martin got dropped halfway through the oh 607 series and yeah but otherwise it was still also five but you picked up a six and seven well we had we had to like that was where Australian cricket and me and some of those names that you're reading there well good Adam Gilchrist Matthew Hayden shame warned Justin Langer my classy my class shame was and was I was shame warned it goes on not bad um well we got stung back into action basically after oh five that oh five tour with some of those sort of older names you're mentioning there like we when we got to the UK for all the right reasons we we tried to sort of structure our training and preparation in a way that meant that some of these older guys Matty Hayden didn't want to be a training for five hours a you know three days in a row leading into like injuries and stuff like that oh I just just just just wanted to be meant more mentally first rather than them being there the slogger the you know an actress tour is hard work your team you through because what do you mean by that because well back in like our Australian cricket teams old way of training was everyone there together everyone there at the same time open as pad up first your face in McGraw Lee these guys in the nets with the new balls and I got to the stage where some of our like some of our guys didn't want to do it that way they wanted to be able to tailor their training for exactly what they needed rather than the old school way right so you know John Beacon and I were for all the right reasons we're happy to try and accommodate these guys to hopefully get the best out of them on that on that tour now it didn't work so like just the little fractures of having the group not together all the time we had certain individuals which I won't name that that that didn't stay in the team hotel in certain vineyard had the family there so they were staying in other accommodation and little things like that when in the middle of an ashes tool when the whole country in the UK is trying to pull you apart anyway media everyone in the public they're trying to pick any little gap that they can a little weakness yeah and we just had these few little cracks that were there that when you get put under pressure in an ashes tool then those cracks just widen up and become a little bit bigger so the great learning for me and on that ashes tour as a young captain not only been in the job for about 18 months was the guys that these these things that were sort of happening works some of my more experienced players in the side and and as a young captain I was just like they'll work it out like they'll they'll fix it you know but guess what they didn't and then they're actually weak that awaited could have been the difference between winning and and not winning that series so from from that moment on and you talk about leadership it was literally I've got a good feel for the game and I've got a good feel for team and I've got a good feel for when people are going well and not going well and from that moment on any time that I identified anything that wasn't exactly perfect or didn't quite sit well with me then I addressed it and fixed it on the spot so what's the interaction between you and the coach and the play so how does that work so you sound like you sort of playing a definite captain's Robert more leisure role but also nearly strategic well the end of the day the captain of a cricket team is completely different than a captain of any other team you what you the captain is basically the coach right once once the game starts the coach pretty much doesn't do much at all so all over to the captain so yeah pretty much yeah so the coach is more responsible for preparation training times what we're going to do at training how that works but did he can solve it yeah yeah yeah yeah of course yeah look I mean that's a pretty important relationship captain coach of a national cricket team but but that side of things was you know not left up to me to handle those individuals but it's my team and they're you know the guys that I'm interacting with all the time I should have done it no and I and if I was guilty of one thing it was just it was I actually just trusted them too much I trusted them to get get it right and sorted out more than I more than I probably should have so from a leadership point of view we'll just say to you know aspiring young captains aspiring leaders of business etc um how do you balance up that or and/or reconcile that bit between trusting my staff trusting my team which is your staff and at the same time that leading the organization to make sure that nothing goes astray I mean I think it's just I think it's just a real gut feel thing I mean don't get me wrong like yeah you have to have full one out of trust in all your all your staff yeah who players team yeah yeah you got you got to have full trust in that but I just had that I knew that little things were wrong and I didn't just didn't address them quick enough so I think when you've got that gut feel on what you know makes and brings success the moment that you feel that that is not quite where it needs to be you got to get back on track again you got to you got to fix it quickly especially you know in international series as I said where the whole country is trying to pull you apart if you don't if you just let it go a little bit longer than you you're cooked see it is sort of your you're got to be yeah you and the coach are very strategic about how you start the before you start the game like prep and all sorts of stuff but you're talking about being tactical now like every single day you notice something's going wrong here notice the person of your mind of an injury or this person if he is not walking very well you're saying as the leader of your organization which is a team you got to be very tactical you got and speak about it straight away do something you can't just observe it let it just no no no every day that goes by is a day lost that you could have had a chance to fix something because you're pretty young then when you get when you pick that's sort of thinking out from or is it from making a mistake is making that mistake you know five absolutely was everything was fine before that I just you know I was captain in 2003 we just won the World Cup you know run defeated everything's going great on captain the number one test team in the world everything's perfect but that just the start of that one tour where just a couple little things opened up that I didn't fix as well learnt that really quickly and learnt the harboy like I said if it's the low point of my career then I learned the harboy right because we you know I had I was lucky enough to play in lots of good teams and that lots of success and we didn't have lots of down times but that one hit home pretty hard and then it was from what I'd identified and what we'd identified as a group in 05 we had about I think England were back really quickly it was only like a nine or ten month turnaround before England were back in Australia so we had a chance over a short window to actually get together as a group get back on to the old school Australian way of training and preparing and being together and being hard knows and given them nothing and and treating with great respect but just giving them nothing outside of that we had a well documented camp up in the SIS camp thing up in the bush in somewhere in Northern Queensland which none of us even know where we went yet because we literally got on two two buses that had the windows completely blacked out and we drove out into the bush somewhere and we got off we didn't know where we were we had a backpack a pair of track pants and a t-shirt for a week in the bush and that was that was us it was a hard new up it was about breaking everyone down breaking everyone down and see how they reacted under under pressure yeah surprises no no there were ones there that I'm sure you can even probably identify that weren't that happy to be there but couple of leg spinners weren't that happy to be there let's leave it at that but no mobile phone no nothing man that would have killed one of them no nothing no set meals and things like we were reading a Campbell's soup out of a tin in the middle of the bush at midnight like an SIS style it was completely that like it was trying to break us down to the point just to see get us at our lowest and see how we'd react under that pressure and also gave gave us a chance to sit down and be pretty open with each other as well as to what we wanted to achieve going forward in that next series coming up but also as a group for the next two or three years and it wasn't we didn't just have the players there we had everyone there that was going to be have direct contact with the Australian cricket team and that was something that John Buchanan and I wanted to be able to do together get everyone involved in the team because it was in physios and all that type of stuff yeah all the direct staff that worked at cricket Australia they were all there with us yeah so I mean my group I think we were broken broken up into groups of I think eight or ten and I ended up having our team manager who was probably sixty five at the time in our field in coach he was probably sixty at the time in our group the first exercise we had we had to walk single file up about a three kilometer incline the backpack backpacks on but we had Jerry cans of 20 kilo or 20 liters so 20 kilos of water we had one of those each to get up and you had to stay exactly one meter apart the whole out the minute anyone viewed off then it wasn't just your group that had to go down everyone went down start again 20 pushups on the spot back up and go again so with with those older guys I hadn't they couldn't even they couldn't get the Jerry cans up there so I ended up with I ended up with two Simon Cadish was in my group ended up with two so we got 40 kilos we came up this 3k incline making sure that we don't step five centimeters out of place if we did it was down so a lot of financially no it was for the guys that way sort of inclined it was unbelievable like to get a group together and share some of that stuff all beat as hard as it was it was great but what it did it just it just clicked the group back into would you call it a bit cyborg mode what you call with with Mcfanning yeah that's what it happened with us like if I looked before that camper if I looked McGraw and Hayden and and Gilly in the eye you know at the back end of their career to that to laugh at that camp I looked him in the eye they were just different people they were different beasts they'd just gone into right okay we're back on here we've got this series coming up where we're going to show England and the rest of the world just how good a cricket team we are and and the rest is history I mean we beat him we beat him five and he all that he didn't even I mean they had a chance to win a game they had a chance to win a game in Adelaide that they chose to knock to try and win and try to play out for a draw which played perfectly into our hands and from the moment that we won that game I knew that they couldn't win a game on the the entire tour so you got a rotation or definitely how the rotation is being fairly aggressive like hard mindset how important is mindset relative to just your physicality like you know your mindset how is that how important has that been to you in forging your career as one of the greatest cricketers of strays ever produced yeah I mean my mindset and a bit of a bit of a yeah and I'll tell you why so a bit of my background you talked about where I grew up I I lived in housing commission homes until I was playing cricket for strays so I was going away on a cricket tour coming back and living in a housing commission home so you know as a kid I did as a kid I didn't I was borrowing my mum's shoes for cricket at school in grade five wow you know stuff like that so once they got an opportunity it was going to take someone pretty tough to take it away from here fuck it you know let that go yeah so I'm not yeah and you know my whole the whole journey for me was once I got picked in the Australian team all I basically said was I want to be a successful part of a very successful cricket team so I worked along along that way I worked to be the most successful I could be but also make sure the team that I was in was the most successful it could be with whatever I could do skill wise leadership wise mindset wise whatever whatever I could and then then you can break that down even further so as a as a batsman you're in a one-on-one contest with the ball right the ball is standing out the end of his mark he's got his ball 150k is either trying to hurt you he's trying to get you out right so the way that I used to look at that and this is you talk about mindset it was like rodeo I'm here you've got your ball I got my bat let's go do best let's see wins yeah that's how I looked at it and you got you're consciously where they're there that's all that that's how I got myself up for each game like I never thought like it as a young bloke I never thought a ball could ever get me out it didn't matter what they did didn't matter how well they bowed how fast they bowed I had no fear of getting out at all I was just going out the school to school runs and that was it did it ever change yeah is there anyone particularly no change the back end of my career is where it changed yeah yeah yeah well no but it was not it it was where the mindset changed to be honest yeah yeah so the last two years I when I stood down from the captain scene and Michael Clark took over the one day captain scene and test captain scene at that stage no other captain that had stood down had kept playing normally if you stood down you were tired but I wanted to stay around the Aussie team because I still one I was still playing well enough there's no one in Australia that was going to not take my place but we had Warner and Smith and hadn't and Johnson and Sid all these young boys came in to the Nathan line all these young guys coming in that I wanted to be a a round and be a part of the start of their journey like I had when I started I had you know Boone Healy Taylor two wars all these guys around when I first started and it was the ideal introduction into a strip the Australian cricket team so I wanted to be around for that but what what that meant was when I wasn't captain and we talked about sending example I went to I just went too far with with it all I try to be too perfect with I mean I was I was fitter I was stronger I was leaner every all the things that I needed to do training was to to to play well physically physically but what I was also too worried about was as I said being perfect and setting the perfect example when I then I've just forgot how to score runs that that might not make any sense to you but when I was just said before every time I walked out about I had no fear of getting out I was only about scoring runs at the back end trying to be perfect I was more worried about not getting out first than scoring runs it's a bit like as we get older and let's say we you know we grow our wealth or whatever the case might be we play more defensively it's like we've got something to protect I mean as in food you can't do it and I feel all right you can't protect the lead yeah you've got to be you know by being defensive yeah it's not a good idea so you're saying your mindset as you get older was like it sounds like you're trying to protect lead or a little bit more defensive you're not as fearless 100% yeah or yeah just more more more worried about getting out first rather than scoring runs yeah so that's exactly what happened and then when you're thinking that well I guess what making runs becomes bloody hard so we know if you if I do want to just ask you a quick question because it's I think it's relevant to some of the young kids coming through today some of the young players when you're you talked about how when you let's say in two that's five in England that the media everyone's trying to pull your pants down and sort of you know put pressure on you whatever they can find weakness put pressure on you how do you deal with the pressure of being a really super talented young guy everyone has expectations of in a cricket side you know let's say you're just now playing for Australia or you're playing you know we're playing reps and you're playing for Australia like your first year your first year of captaincy how did you deal with the pressure of the media now you're someone in the media today so you know how the media works they're always they're looking for a story you know of Ricky Pointing does it to be the player that everyone thought he was yep they're gonna give it to you yeah I mean I I never gave them too much to be honest but I and I talk the way I talk about that now is is when I was a player and as a captain it was like I have my helmet on all the time and now that I've retired I've been able to take my helmet off and there's a lot more you know there's a lot more me coming out whether it's in broadcast or I think people on the public and the media probably starting to understand me more now than they did when I was playing but that was that was on purpose as well I didn't want to give too much away about me or my team good I I looked at myself as well as a as a guardian of Australian cricket and a protector of my teammates you know I looked at myself as a pretty much when I was captain I thought of myself as a primary school teacher like how well how would a primary school teacher look after their group right they're they're always they're there for them all the time they put in their arm around and they give them a pat in the back they're not necessarily ruling with the iron fist like the like the principal would it at a primary school add up sorry at a high school a private school high school yeah so I that's the way that I tried to protect and look after so if it even if it wasn't me like I didn't I didn't get a lot of negativity in the media because of the way that I play because I had reasonable success right so there wasn't many times more than reasonable but yeah so it wasn't like where I'd go and sit and talk about myself or answer questions about myself but yeah the captain of a team that leadership I five maybe some questions around that but I had all these other guys that I was answering questions about all the time and that's where the protector came in that's for me I didn't give much about I didn't say much about any of them though once I said you know they're in my tent I'm doing whatever I can to look after them and protect them and keep them in in my tent and then if I've ever got to the point where media were unfair to my team or unfair and factually incorrect about any of my players then they knew I went I went I went yeah but not in I just go to them individually and say look that's you're wrong and if you want to keep talking to us you're going to keep talking to me in press conferences and why don't you talk to me for and ask me first rather than just planning stuff out there that's not that's not right so I had a pretty strict and strong relationship with the media and now I think a lot of those guys that I dealt with then if you ask them now they would they'd say who was that bloke 15 years ago like he's he's totally different than the other side now that's right it's just right it's a different but I'm also good at yeah and I'm not I'm not looking I'm not looking after anyone I'm not protecting a group and a team and you know the other the other thing back then I think we could beat a lot of teams back then on the mystique that was around that side yeah everyone thought we were different everyone thought we were different everybody else and there's something around that group and this this player does that and he does that no there wasn't we would we were just good but we were quiet we didn't let anyone in no one knew anything about what we were doing you know no one was in the no one used to come in the dressing room like we might have three or four people in the dressing rooms at the end of a test match and like I didn't want anyone to know what we were what we were like so it's interesting because you know I'm seeing you talking to you and the camera is probably catching us but I mean I'm trying to look at your personality and your character and and I talked about your eyes moment ago for the people who who are listening to this and or if you're listening on you know with some sort of audio process and or not watching I can tell you somewhere this guy seeing obviously now so I want to make some observations so the first thing is you are for me you are really confident in what you have to say and you articulate it well so I guess that's how you were as a player too and as a captain but you articulate real but what people don't would not be peeing out from these cameras is guys got a death stare you have a death stare you don't blink too much blinking now but when you're speaking when you're delivering an answer you know exactly what you want to if I can say but the the glare that's coming out of your eyes is is confronting like it's it's like you're looking right through me and do you realize you do that I mean you probably I don't know that I do it but I've been told in certain environments so I've got that look like you know you might be in a big group you might be in a group even my dad's dad's got the look no even like my son's 11 even around his junior cricket team some of the other dads are like have you if you got that look for him today yeah but there is a look you have not when you're laughing you're always squinted up and I can't see what's going on in there but when you when I'm what I'm talking about cricket and leadership and thing I'm pretty you know I'm pretty passionate about I was I I mean goes me on passionate rookie like it's for me this is dead set serious the deal it's not just I get the passion bit but like it's real like when you say I want to protect my my side my job is to look after him yeah that looks like you know brave heart shit yeah it's real yeah it's real like you you really want to do it you're really they actually really fucking believe in it sounds like it's fundamental it's a fundamental to me it's like a non-negotiable principle like not something you're prepared to move back a move away from no not at all and that's the way I've always lived that's the way I was brought up you know nothing's nothing's easy nothing's taken for granted you got got an opportunity to make the most of it put your stamp on it let everyone know the way it's going to be and then remain that way remain yourself you can't I've always been a big believer not but you can't change who you are and go up and down with it with the moments or with the times or with the individuals you like you have to let everyone know this is you this is the way it's going to be at the end of the day you know I might give someone a desk there but that in that might be one of my teammates but that teammate has to understand that the reason I'm doing that is because I'm trying to make them better it's not for any other reason I don't dislike you're trying to dominate you just no this you deal yeah this is this is the way this is the way that I'm delivering the message this is the way I think I can get the message across to you to you best and even coaching in the IPO now I'm coaching probably five or six different cultures in one one team environment you know you got probably 15 18 Indians in your side young Indian kids and and you know that death here probably comes out with them a lot of the time but like I said I'm going to have I'm going to have 100 conversations with you over the next two months you're going to enjoy 95 95 with them but there's going to be a few that you're not going to enjoy that much and that's but the reason I'm doing it is because I'm making you better that's that's all I care about is making you better making our team better and giving us the chance to win to win as many games as possible do you think you're like growing up the way you did as you mentioned earlier in your now housing commissioner as a kid etc and not being sort of overly spoiled obviously but clearly being loved by parents but not being overly spoiled do you think that sort of builds a certain honesty and authenticity and like some you I mean as a principle do you carry that through in your life like if I can I'm going to be authentic I'm going to be honest because you know part of that those conversations making you the best version of yourself talking to your players or and all your teammates that's about you actually telling him what you honestly feel and like and then you talk authentically you don't you know trying to bullshit anybody you know like I know people like this like carry packers like that he was he actually wanted to get the best version of you out of out of you and he also had the same look and I haven't met too many people have that look he had that same look and do you do you build it as a skill what do you think or do you notice is that no it's a skill or is there something that you just naturally do I think it was something that was ingrained in me I think I you go back to my upbringing at home my cricket club upbringing environment was very much the same very hard us upbringing in my my cricket club but the same thing there had a lot of blokes that were looking out for me and had my back and I think having had that as a kid I think I honestly understood how good and loving that environment was and I made it wanted to make sure that that was the way I was going to be going forward so I don't think it was ever anything I don't think it was a practiced thing I just think that I had great respect for being spoken to and looked after in that way that that's just who I turned out to be but also when I was when I was really young you know some of the some interviews I did as a kid I mean I couldn't put two words together as a 17 18 20-year-old not many kin though no and I couldn't and looking back now was it was embarrassing well some of the interviews I did as a young bloke when I first got picked it was like God I couldn't I couldn't speak but that's all evolved you know it evolves step-by-step stage-by-stage maturity roles in teams having a voice to start we'll think as once again as a young bloke you didn't always have that voice and didn't want to I just wanted to sit back and and listen and learn from what the great players and great teams are doing and then I could store all that I think that's probably been my greatest strength over time is the ability just to listen and take stuff in and then get rid of all the shit and keep the good stuff and then and be able to use the good stuff where where and when appropriate around individuals or around teams so and oh well and if I'm talking about cricket I want people to know that I'm serious about it like I'm not just there to captain a team to have a bit of fun I'm there to captain a team to make you better and win games simple and if you're if you're not on the journey with me then I'll find someone else so that and you know the when I took over took over the captaincy was like I'm taking over the best the best team in the world I want to make it different in some way I want to make what's inside the dressing room a little bit different than what it is I want us to play the same way on the field so you know I came up with a vision of what I wanted from from our team you know I wanted the team to be the the best skilled and most uncompromising cricket team the world is I love that uncompromising but yeah yeah so with a vision you need a set of values to go with that right so how do I how do I how do I get how do I create this this vision how do I make this vision work so then I say to all the players down in a group and we talked about the values and way the ways that we're going to live our lives and train to give us the best chance of being that best team in the world and then the third part of that was so I called it the three V's vision values validation validation was the third part if you can't validate it don't you not in my team sorry but if you're not you're not on the same track as me not in the same path as me then we're good enough good players I'll find someone else otherwise don't talk to talk walk the walk like we'll do both yeah I'll lead the way you're in with me this is the way we're doing it jump on board and off we go and we'll go and play and we'll go and win but we'll do it the right way so there's okay so but and you and you and you had the great skill and you had a fairly hard-ass team they obviously they played really well in six and seven and beyond but there's characters in your team two absolutely characters and with cricket there's cricketers my my experience with cricketers they actually have more fun than anybody that as athletes when a fun time comes on actually some of the best fun time people there are that they really are and they love a drink they're just lyrgans especially the Australian sides those who I've known in your team you're warning like anything how did you well I don't even have to say this but and and god rest yourself but how do you manage the character of someone like him who's sounds like in some respects compared to you the opposite except maybe when he's ball yeah except when he's when he's competing and he's after you talk about a death stare or someone that was in a contest you wouldn't find many many better than him yeah any day of his life any day of his career if he was injured if he was tied didn't matter once he was in a contest then he was in a contest yeah if you're up against him he wants you but outside of that like games over you know you've got a couple of days hanging out in England I mean there's probably more made to warning party wise and lifestyle wise and there actually was like there was this big you know big persona big fun loving character outside of the game but yeah he he wasn't as big a party as whatever I'm probably thought he was and and as you say good god god bless god rest his soul but the thing I always sort of joke about with him was that everyone always says oh how did you used to look after him and how did you used to captain him I said well thankfully it was only from 10 30 a.m. to 6 30 p.m. and I didn't have to worry about the rest I didn't I didn't want to know what was happening post 6 30 p.m. was he was he his bigger characters everyone 100% yeah and you've got us to just think back to his whole life I mean he was you know he won't one stage he's signed with Nike he's over in Nike factory and the year we're hanging out with Michael Jordan designing Krieger shoes for like he he was a big deal like he went from you know a little fat kid from black rock or somewhere to all of a sudden in three or four years being probably the biggest superstar on the world cricketing stage and it went and it even went further than that you know with with his persona and so he looked like ego wise character wise when I first became the captain there were probably there were two other guys I thought were going to become a captain ahead of me one was warning one was gilly but cricket Australia thought that I was the right man for the role at the right time but how did I manage that the what the easy way to say that I managed that was I didn't change myself just because I became the captain I was the same person in that team that always was you know always I was always a bit of a larykin around the team as well you know I got him around oh yeah and just you know I enjoyed a drink as much as anybody and got myself in a fair share trouble along the way and got dropped a couple times early in my career so and so but when I became captain I didn't I wasn't I'm not all of a sudden gone from here to here and I'm the boss and I'm making all the decisions it wasn't like that it's I got that vision across really clearly of the way that all that the team was going to be the way the team was going to operate and this is the way that I'm going to do things but I just remained exactly the same person I think that's where I got the respect from all the players along the way with it and that probably helps we we come from to like in terms of how you grew up like it's not like you're I'm not having a crack of private school kids because most kids end up going to private schools after their parents pay some money but like that you can sort of you can not demand it you that respect comes to you when you sort of grow up in a more humble environment too but automatically they put it all he's not a he's not show off he's he's not having himself yeah and cricket's a lot like that to be honest like a lot of a lot of cricketers are from the country and there's not a you know there's probably a really high proportion of public school kids they don't have a plan higher level cricket than there is private school kids just the way that it it's worked out over the years so yeah but I that was one thing I was conscious of you know you asked about was there any any practice things along the way as far as leadership was concerned I was as conscious of not changing myself I wanted to be the same person and and be you know be a little bit more maybe inclusive in the inside the Australian dressing room than what it probably had been before so yeah I just want to ask you if you you're talking about well when you're talking about how you get how you guys going to your values and you pick the values and you know you articulate really well and then you sort of talked about how you're going to actually you know validate that in terms of training and in terms of effort in terms of how you look after yourself and how you actually play in the field that's for the whole team we're talking about not just you then you look at the current English side they're playing this sort of former cricket at the moment called basketball whatever else and that sort of seems to be the opposite to what gave you guys the success in 2006 and 2007 and that period well some would argue that it's actually the same way we like you think about those champion teams that were that I was in the you're real about some of those days before we were scoring at a very similar scoring rate to what England are now but we're doing it for longer and doing it for better doing it better and doing it for longer periods of time which which you have to be able to do in test cricket we just saw a test match finish in two days in depth on the back of that style of play in England one one down a hundred runs ahead at lunch on day two the games over that night Australia winning by eight we could select unless they're willing to change the way that they play and accept that they are making mistakes and they're failing all the way which is not sure how much attention you put you paid a what they've done over the last couple of years or what they've spoken about since they've been here but they made so many glaring mistakes in that last game in Perth to let Australia back into the game and then lose what was looking to be the unloosable test match they didn't just lose a loss by eight wickets but then they come back out at the end they defend they defended the way that they played and their captain has done it from the from the start they don't talk about refining the way they play they talk about go I will go harder next time we we have to go harder next time we didn't go hard enough this time that's the way they're talking about it and the great teams that I played in no we if we had a day like that we sit down and we dress and we make sure we massage it and fix that style of play for the next see you don't double down on on on your style you're back you style your back you style lean but you got to play moments in games as well like ashes ashes cricket and this is the other thing I'm on record saying England said they're coming here with their best team this century which is like man for man their best team this century finally really 100% and it is well and it actually is that's something and they look at our team and they say oh this is the worst team man for man that Australia's had since 2010 this is their media says and some of their past players have said it yeah and then my response to that was I don't care who you bring here I don't care what players you've got I don't care what players we've got you still got to beat Australia and there's more to that than just the individual players you got like the skill to eat that fine but when the moments come in a national series let's who let's see who's standing up at the end of it and last week we saw the characters come out right we we Australia were down and done Travis said makes 180 ball blue and the game's over and that's but that that's one test in an ashes and so this not we're not just losing that moment you're losing the game so all of a sudden they're one kneel down they've got to win they've got to win through the next through the next four test matches if they want to get home with the ashes so yeah it's all about moments not about not about personnel and starts catch yeah amazing yeah incredible lake what where does someone get that so his six seven he's running in but still he was like full reach like that's the other way so he's bowling he's going that way yeah and he's got the strength to get back over and get it it's he's dominant catching hand obviously he's left hand but um and he's the change direction he's 36 or 37 and still doing that as well so that that when we talk about being prepared and being physically right that was a start of the second and he said only just but finished bowling not that long ago so he's back out dawned again um a moments a moments like that a moments a turn of game so like everyone goes wow what the fuck how good was that like your side Australia and then everybody just goes up a level I'm there to that it sends a message to doesn't it like it it picks your teammates up like everyone around you lifts with it that but imagine what it does in the addressing room I'm eight so they're sitting back saying shit they're they're on again here they've just bowed us out for 170 they're up and about again we're we're in trouble so that's that's the messages that it can send and that's what that's what you hope it does and there's the two parts of that as well right so that catch is that crawly on a PSE so the individual scarring comes out of it as well stark doesn't catch that crawly might get away might hit runs he takes confidence into the second test all of a sudden now he's going to Brisbane with with two ducks in the Perth test extra pressure comes back on him and then that pressure can just creeped up back down through the rest of your your team as well so there's there's so many things that comply out through the course of a test match and a Nash's and Nash's series so it when when when he goes for that catch is I mean there's probably enough time to think about it's his instinct but do do players get the opportunity to make a risk assessment like like you just said like if if I go to this catch I miss it I'm going to give him confidence the baller if I get it I'm going to crush him and probably crush the dressing shirt as well do you guys have time to think those things are not not on catches like that no and I hope to think with anyone the way that Australian players and teams have played over the years there's no not going for a situation you'll be if you are any chance of going for it you're going for it because unless you don't dog it well there's an old saying with cricket with those sort of catches you never you never know unless you ever go yeah yeah and that's that's what we've always said if you if you're half a chance to get there you dive you put your body on the line because it guess what one day you'll catch one and if you do that might be the moment in the game that wins it for us so what sage did Ricky pointing go from being a cricket a great cricket a captain in his country you know winning world series etc to becoming to understand that hang on this is my business I'm the business of being a cricketer that's how I make my money and therefore I've got to extend my career if I can or I go start planning for my post you know post-playing for Australia career my point did you start realizing this is a this is a bloody business and this is really good for me and good for my family you know what I don't think I ever saw it as a business really although I mean at the end of my career I was making good money from the game yeah and it wasn't always that way so as a 17 year old my first full season of Sheffield Schoole cricket for Tasmania was 10 Sheffield Schoole games and I think we played 10 one days then as well because used to play a one day on the back of it Schoole game 24,000 dollars that was the whole lot that was the whole year that's my f***** that's my full contract so for the first few years I wasn't making a lot of money at the end yes but IPOs come along and creed Australia TV rights goes up and revenue sharing comes in and that sort of stuff so where all the players were making good money at the end but I never looked at it as a business at all it was I had a job to do I was a cricketer I wanted to I wanted a bat number three I wanted to make runs I wanted to captain Australia I wanted to win games I had other people that could look after that I mean obviously there was business stuff attached to it I could great sponsors and great corporate support and whatever else was was going on my wife and I started her own charity foundations well before the playing days were over so that took up a bit of time but never never ever did I look at as the game as a as a as a business for me or me as a businessman within the game so you never really thought yourself I've got to you know keep myself properly prepared I've got to not stop drinking because I want you know what all my joints be good or I've got a train harder in the gym or you know whatever the case would be in order to keep my my playing years lengthened in order that I can continue my money not just to keep playing and what about well I wanted to get for so for instance if you look at that way if there was a well if I was coming towards the end in 2011 and there was a test a national series in 2013 it was about me being the best cricketer I could get to there in 2013 not about making more money through those two years before I got there it was only ever about about the game so when Ricky pointed become a businessman at what point because you know you're doing a whole lot of TV you do you got your wine wine business which we're talking about the moment you got your charity which you're talking about as well and it's just got and you've got lots of investments because you know at some stage you get to a point you might be 36-37 anything around my crickets over how can I take what I've done and the reputation of built and you know I don't want to retire at the late retirement from life I've got a kids mortgage life with schooling or that sort of stuff and what point did you think about that like did you have a story it's a good story because the last season that I played by the time that I actually first class cricket before I bet yeah yeah yeah yeah so the way it worked out my last my last Sheffield Shield game with Tasmania we won the Sheffield Shield and we had a good young group of players and that's the first title I'd ever won for Tessie right so when was it what age were you around it I was about 38 38 2013 somewhere there when I retired and I had all these great plans of playing one more year of Sheffield Shield which meant that I'd have to get all the way through the winter do all the training and whatever else and be ready to to go one more year and then channel 10 came along BBL came along you know and decided that I'd played enough and then I was going to transition into the into the commentary box but halfway through that first year off like I was craving a year off playing I'd travelled for you know 20 20 years non-stop internationally for 20 years so and cricket was you know I couldn't play the game the way that I used to be able to play the game so that wasn't as enjoyable anymore so I was craving this 12 months at home two little kids take them to school post them golf in the afternoon you know but three or four months in I'm sitting at home on the couch just having just taking the kids to school I'm having a coffee and I'm sitting back thinking what are you like we will I just so used to having everything set out for me and like when you're an international cricket or when you're an athlete the other side that I couldn't replace was the competition side of life so and the rush well every day you're competing right so you're either in the gym you're in the nets facing bowlers or you're playing a game or you're looking after you died all these things where you're paying more attention to being competitive and then the minute that I that you retire all that stops so all that competitive edge and juices that you've always had is not there and you can't replace it and then so that's where a bit of commentary took me closer back to the game again which you know I've always said I think my happy place is in a cricket dressing room that's where I was supposed to be and then with the coaching side of it that brings some of that competition back into my life as well because I'm coaching against the other guys that I played against I'm coaching big franchises that hopefully win IPO tournaments and things like that so some some competition comes back but that the one thing I say to everyone now as far even as far as business is you but you're going to make sure you have that ready for you when you retire you need to be able to walk and start it up early you mean yeah yeah yeah if not have it in the pipeline and ready to go you don't you don't want to take too long in between because you don't want the gap yeah so would it be fair to say then at some stage in your life you had to re-identify or maybe sort of just sort of change up who Ricky Ponding is because Ricky Ponding was the great competitor, cricketer, athlete and you we tend to define ourselves by what we do for a long period especially when you're doing from you know age of 18 to age of 30 like 20 odd years at the highest level was it a conscious decision like yeah I can't identify whether they'd do it anymore I'm now going to become Ricky Ponding the former cricketer but now a commentator and blah blah blah I think it's just happened that I think it happens organically I think your life just goes in different directions like that once you're finished playing I mean the cricket's a really strange game as well in the fact that the or everyone being from different states so that group of players a lot of those group of players finished at the same time and then you just you drift off you're back in your own state you're back with your own family you don't catch up very much it's a really no it's actually quite bizarre with the way that works out we're all busy right we've all got our own lives if you don't hook up there and say hey man yeah yeah but face to face catching up and having dinner or whatever like it might happen a couple of times a year when you happen to be in each other state luckily now I'm working with a lot of those guys I'm working with JL and Lang and Bluey and these guys that I played a lot of cricket with so I can see them there but otherwise you wouldn't see them too much at all but I think there's just organic change there your life just leads you in different directions right like with never in my wildest dreams that I think I'd be sitting here or anywhere talking about wine business yeah the wine business like growing up in my up my upbringing my career club even the guys of my career club now I think this is a load of shit so I can that how can that little rat bag be walking around telling people what a great pin on a wari's got from from Tasmania because that's just not how I was brought up but but since I've been with Reanna and we've been able to travel and get ready for it but my wife been able to travel and get around different parts of the world she's sort of really introduced me to to wine and we have had a lot of fun drinking it over the years and since I've retired I've been able to drink a little bit more and the tip when I was playing and here we are you know five years on with our with our own brand that we've got 13 minds in the range now and telling a story about where I'm from and my upbringing and our our love and passion for wine and our love and passion to have a business that we can work on together how cool is it to be able to do a business with the with the misses after all these years she's obviously been there supporting you in your career and now you're doing a business together or 100% and that I'm glad you brought that up about supporting because she's a qualified solicitor my wife she did a double degree law rats degree qualified for that and then hasn't worked a day in a life so but when we when we met she still had two years to go on a on a degree so I moved down to will and I actually wish you was studying and we got through that and then it became pretty evident that if we were going to if we were going to work and family life was going to work that we couldn't have both of us doing what we wanted wanted to do so and I still had 10 or 12 years of playing career ahead of me so she decided to give up what she wanted to do to be with me support me and then obviously support our family and and then to have a business together that we can work on I talked about the foundation and we've had we've had our foundation for 16 years we've we've raised I think 13 14 million dollars for the same foundation ponting foundation raises funds for children and families going through childhood cancer yep so we've done that together and been able to work on that which takes a lot of time and something really create on something really passionate about but then this comes along and and once again this is very much just a passion project for us and maybe what we want to be great at what we do we want to have a great little business but also we want to have a lot of a lot of fun along the way with it watch which is what we've been able to do over the last five years so we got so it's is a peanut so just take me through it because like I have some involvement in wine businesses and whiskey businesses I own and some of those things and um most of the thing I've always probably got somebody to produce for him and you know put a label on it and call a ponting something rather than the way we go but once you start getting involved and invest in one of these things it's actually a lot more detail than that and it's not a matter of just taking the cork off and having a drink which is what I wish I wish it was not um you know write down the things like you know where I get the bottles from where I get the labels from with the label looks like what the name of the business is um you know where I get my juice from how I've produced the juice how many bottles I've got to do I don't want to have too many I want to sell as many as I can make just take me through a little bit of um the process of you you two the two of you um you and we are deciding that you want to set up a wine business because you just don't wake up I mean I let's set up wine business there's a lot more research goes into it yeah my brother business partner sitting across the at the moment he was the one that he was the one that rang me um rang me at home one morning um somebody what do you think about starting your own wine label and I said mate I've not even my wildest dreams ever thought about that and I said but just give me one minute I'll go and have a chat with Rihanna and see what she thinks and it was literally within one minute I rang back and said yep we're keen to do it we want to do it um but we're gonna do it properly we're gonna do it in a premium way we're gonna find the best what wine maker then we can find so it's about premium wines or premium wines everything about everything about it what we do could be premium labeling bottling as you said all that stuff we're gonna make sure that it's that it's premium and not just sitting in the in the fridge is a an everyday wine so um that was our vision at the start and our wine maker was made pretty clear about that um and but I'm glad that you're actually brought up we did there as well about sticking your your label your name on somewhere also stuff that's the one thing everyone assumes that well what it's happened with a lot with sort of celebrity brands and yeah it hasn't it where it's not it's not being their business they're happy to be an ambassador whatever sit back and take whatever comes in when I get 10% of them yeah that's not that's not us here that so you're producing your own wine and we're the major we're entering either major shareholders in the whole business right so it's this is ours and yeah and but that's what we struggle with the most is people understanding the authenticity of our involvement in this business it's not I wouldn't expect any less from after talking to you know because like I wouldn't imagine you would done that just put your name on top of someone else's business so it's not a white label brain you know white labeling or someone's not white labeling their their wines with your name yeah no it's at the point that the wine you're holding in your hand there that's a Tasmanian Pinot Noir so telling about talking about authenticity in storytelling then me being from Tasmania I had to have Tasmanian wines in the range to make it authentic right so yeah so we've got four we've got two Pinot Noirs of a Shardina and a Pinot gree out of Tasmania which helps me tie the whole story together about upbringing where I'm from one of the one of the one yeah that wine there so that's called the Mobre boy so that's what is the Mobre boy well my local cricket club was the Mobre Cricket Club and the area and the the suburb that I was brought up in in one system was around that Mobre region so if I'm guaranteed now if you went down to Tazzi you went anywhere to the north of the state and you said give me a couple of words about Ricky Ponding they'd say oh he's a Mobre boy that's all that's Adia and that's why we so there once again is some authenticity and storytelling around so we grapes we're the grapes coming from different parts of so we hand select really where we want to get our grapes from yep so with with Ben Riggs our one maker in South Australia with his knowledge of the South Australian McLaren Velbrossa Langhon Creek areas like that we leave it up to him to pretty much hand select there and and Tasmania has been a bit more difficult through the years the fact that it's actually hard to get enough volume down there that that what we need so you know three or four years in a row I was down there basically door knocking on at different venues and different to try and get enough enough stock to get us done for that for that particular vintage so yeah so we don't we don't own our own venue to such that that's something that we do you take other people's grapes which is pretty normal that's that's what most especially for a startup a pen for zero to yeah like by the way I think pen for a lot of Tasmania stuff yeah they're 100% and by the way how have you guys handled the Benadrat down there last in Tasmania it's been pretty dry anyway I don't know the drought but it's been pretty dry for the last couple of years has that affected your so we know we've been we've been good we've been good I mean there's been different things that have happened in South Australia probably more so I remember the size yeah yeah yeah there's been things like that that can be and that's one of the other reasons that we didn't launch into buying a vineyard straight up as a young as a young business right you launch into buying your own vineyard you got full running costs that are associated with that you have a couple of bad years in a row and and yes stuffed you could be stuffed yeah so we sort of gently gently at the start we're growing really really well we're really proud of what was it being sold well down down Murphy's has just picked up all the the rebinds for this summer they'll hopefully pick up the white wines for next summer pond ponding wines dot com's probably the easiest way to see sell along the line as well yeah it's on your it's on your doorstep in a couple of days and we we pitching a price is like for example this pinno this is a 2024 pinno this is the most great boy that's you and we we're pitching a price that's about 44 that's about 44 dollars for a high quality premium Tasmanian Pino Noir which is the other thing that we wanted to do and the message to our wine maker straight away was that let's let's over deliver what's in the bottle and and let's stay at the bottom range of the premium wine range now premium wine from Tasmania and selling it cheap it's not easy because of the the cost to go with making wine in Tasmania are extreme compared to to everywhere else so even a wine like that so which ones that one that's the McLarenvale Shiraz you know that'll that'll be in store for 25 26 dollars and so that's once again it's pretty reasonable you're very well ever look on the label it's one it's one lots of different awards that wine as well so I was gonna ask you about that because slake is pretty important in the in the liquor industry wine whiskey whatever jeans especially down in Tasmania but awards are important and you being the style of personnel and in character that you are you guys have been entering yourself into a competition and trying to win awards and like you know every every kind of work yeah every competition that wine there the barossa the barossa Shiraz the one to seven Shiraz six or seven weeks ago one Australia's best Shiraz oh wow international wine show in London so wow and we're talking hundreds and hundreds of Shiraz been sent to that to that one show blind tasting as you know with all the stuff that you've done this little five-year-old business took out Australia's best Shiraz but then then you talk about awards you can't really cash in on that award very much because that's sort of at the end of the vintage for that wine you can't really take all the bottles back and stick stickers on it and tell everybody that this is because you might make three thousand bottles and then once it's solved that's the end of that award and yeah because this next year's next year's great so it actually makes it hard to capitalize so having something like this where we can talk about or social media that's right because I mean I love to talk about awards because I think it's important and I think very rare people get an opportunity to actually boast or skyd about what the fuck they've created but it gives people it gives the consumer reason to want to try your totally I might as well try that I got to try it like I might not be good yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah if it's one that especially an international show like best Shiraz you you know so you're committing yet the Shirazers of all the Australian Shirazers at this London international wine show yeah so it was both so it was Barossa the best Barossa Shiraz you can imagine how many Shiraz come out of Barossa yeah there's the best Barossa and the best Australian Shiraz yeah well done so like now you've already given a surprise and you can as you see you can go to ponding white ponding wines dot com dot com dot are you yeah well not anyway I might be able to get in but there's some of these are damn Murphy's when you're running you and your misses and Ben of running this business um how do you approach how do you approach your team I mean is it Ricky ponding like the captain of Australia like we're gonna have our values I mean how did you approach what you approach right I think that said it was yeah yeah right absolutely we went like David and myself and Rihanna I went over and sat down with Ben Riggs a one-maker Macomba and we sat down for a couple of days and talked everything through as the way that it was that I wanted things to be um and I mean it's it's can be hard for me at times as well to be as hands on as I probably need to be or would like to be with it when I'm you know away for six months at a time I mean in the year I'm in like different time zones there's lots of deadlines that are happening with with bottling and things like that it's it's hard for me to be on top of a hundred percent of the business side of things and in fact David looks after all the pretty much all the business side of things that the ins and outs and and the bottom lines and things like that but um so that's the hardest part of it but and no life does start to sort of slow down a little bit the next couple of years then that's when I'll have more of an opportunity around and I to be able to probably be more you know I won't say investors not the right word but more involved probably in the the day-to-day running off the business it seems to me like a a cricketers at your level cricketers partner wife at a half particularly when this kids involved is like um quite a sort of a I don't want to get a corny would be like a blessed relationship if it works because like you said you're way six months of the year I mean they travel they've been out of travel a lot as well yeah they travel and and I I speak to they want like that same thing you know like it's where mate so I get to talk to him fair fair bit but like having your family traveled to see you got a wife who's got holidays you know to do it or end or you would have come back to her and she's got holidays if you can mate if you can get here um there's a special sort of relationship there it's a trust um understanding um commitment from both parties um probably the understanding piece like understanding what it takes for you to be the coach of an IPL side which is you know you're in India time zone differences but also I didn't ring me it's not like it didn't really like I couldn't ring you because something's going on I know I had to do whatever and there's there's media you have to attend you have to attend to the media in those places too how do you how does that all mean someone has been a successful mate in you know marriages me um I know you do it so I mentioned back a few minutes ago about when Rana and I first got together and her being qualified lawyers and giving up her career giving up her career but the other thing I said to her at the time which is probably the main reason that she gave up her career when she did was I'd been on my first share of Australian tours at that stage anyway and I was the young bloke on these tours and what became really evident to me it was it exactly the three week mark on every tool that I went on is when the environment around a team started to change everyone started getting a bit narkier um you know the the win-jama days we used to call the win-jama to get would just start going up every little thing that happened was blowing like mate and it was because it was that separation was about being away from home being away from your family banned away from your kids it was that exact time so I said to Rana said I've look I've seen this if we're going to make if we're going to make us work the longest week and have a part is three weeks at a time in which case she's going to come over to your word over the case mate for 25 years there's been one occasion where we've been separated for for longer than three so that's three weeks at a time so set up a structure had to to make it to make it work because I just seen too many failings and and things happen on tours that that we felt that we could control right so even now with with the IPL gig I'm I'm normally there for about 10 weeks it's well works well around the Easter holidays the kids normally come over for three three and a half weeks smack bang in the IPL so that works really well so we've we've managed it we've done a great job of involved but that that that that requires commitment and effort that's why I said it early on commitment 10% yeah there's not it's not it's not her compromising it's you committing her committing to a process as it's about a process yeah and then your kids get to a certain age as well where they they actually want to they want to be there they want to be around the teams they want to they want to be part of it all and yeah so that's been a really cool thing about so I've got a seven-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl 11-year-old boy and as much as Rihanna and I want to stay together through that period the kids are the ones that are going to her saying I'm when are we going to India can't wait to go to India again and can't wait to go and hang out with the with the around that team again so it's it's a it's a good environment to have yeah but yeah to be such a successful Andy way in any in anything you have to make lots of compromises this called sacrifices do you ever sort of look and say man I missed that bloody netball game for my daughter or miss that or yeah I miss a moment do you do have ever sort of reflect on those things yeah I mean yes but no it's probably just been a bit such a big part of my life to understand that those things sacrifices things are gonna they're gonna they're gonna be there somewhere I mean I haven't thankfully I haven't missed too many next year will be a big year for us family wise with my daughter going into year 12 we won't travel as much next year big year for her I want to be make sure that I'm around as much as I can to help her through that that year as well so yeah it it's just I think to be an international sportsman yet that you have to make a lot more sacrifices than most people probably imagine I mean I I moved away from home at the age of 26 moved to Sydney first where I met Rihanna and then we've been in Melbourne for for 12 years and you know I've I've not spent large chunks of time with my immediately immediate family at all for 25 years and it turns your brothers this is all for kids and mum and and any mum that's a life yeah yeah but yeah but I haven't but that then but that's where that's just the direction that my life's taken me you know it's like like it's not like I haven't literally wanted to be around but when you're on the road as much as you are and then you've got your own family and commitment it's really hard to get those big chunks with your family but that's international sport you know the thing people probably don't understand about cricket as well when you're playing um it's 11 months of the year your job is 11 months of the year you get you get a guaranteed six week break every year but you can't have six weeks off because you need to be training and working to get right for the next tournament and even when and so seven or eight months of those of those months are probably overseas so even when you're but even when you're in Australia and Dave might have spoken about this when he was on but even when you're in Australia yet your season starts mid-November if you live in Sydney you only play one test and one one day in your home state for that whole summer so you've only got a week in your own home even during an Australian summer so you just it's it's it's incredible what you actually what you actually do give up and sacrifice so you I mean I'm gonna get do you live in hotels when you go when you spend a time to the overseas like don't have houses or anything that's what I tell well looked after I mean those those groups that we're talking about we've probably we've got probably 120 people in our around our franchise but anyone time so it's it would you do me the IPL IPL yeah 125 people yeah about 120 shit yeah that's huge that's huge yeah I mean the expenditure you think about 120 hotel rooms and 120 flights every other day it adds up pretty quickly yeah and then it just gives a quick insight when I've spent a lot of time in India working out a business there for many years and like big stuff the massive is an amazing place like colorful hectic like hectic is not even I doesn't even describe the joint how do you feel when you're how do you settle down into any ice to find a harder settle down I just have to go there for work and then after a short period of time I don't I have to get the hell out of there because my brain was going mental and then but then I couldn't wait to get back sort of like a drug how did you find when you first started going to India like not as a player but as a coach well as a player was harder yeah as a as a young bloke experiencing some of the things that you're talking about there when you don't know what's waiting around the corner it's mental it's hard like everything is everything about India's foreign to what we know here all on steroids the whole thing everything cars traffic airports science scenes smells yeah yeah every all your senses is quite different and then you got to play cricket yeah so you got that going on you've got a pitch that you've never seen before that's turning this far you've got people running from everywhere to get close to you yeah the audience is very easy temperature everything everything's different so playing days was at the start was hard then you're starting used to you're starting used to the culture you you know where you can go on what you can do and what you can't do and as a coach I mean I I talked earlier about missing the competition side of things I've made I love it as a coach yeah I've got 25 players with me the whole time I've got you know 10 or 12 staff around the group my job is to bring those guys as close as you're going to get together as I said them and win games but the enormity of the tournament is something that people I'm I'm sure everyone knows things to know how big the tournament is but any any young Aussie player that I've ever had over at the IPO I as soon as they get their their couple of games in I'll always sit down with them say what do you what do you think what's this like and they they describe it as being an AFL grand final every day yeah yeah every game is every game is sold out you can't get in people are yelling and screaming they're turning up to see Doni they're turning up to see coldly they're chanting the whole it is it is like you said the country being on steroids it's about it's like the BBL that we have here and then we love and we get this it's like that's that on steroids with all the best players in the world there for for eight weeks that's it's pretty cool it doesn't stop India doesn't stop 24 hours a day especially if there's cricket on yeah it's like it's like it's not just a national sport there it's their identity in 2007 my roommate James Packer who's the whole family's mad Krieger fans as you know put on a and he spoke you know about this I've been amazing for a long time this is part of it yeah so the 2007 celebration on the packer boat how much shall I tell you as much as you want and go for it that was well right royal the cameras it was pretty cool it was actually a motivation to win that day because we knew that James was hovering around somewhere in the area and he had he had the big the big yacht there and we'd talked about it was like boys if we win we're probably going to be out on this thing the next day yeah it was it and everyone was on a lot of the creators for their obviously all the players and families that were there were out in the boat most people don't realize there's like 100 plus meters long it's like the less of what you feel serious craft yeah yeah but some of our boys it had a few drinks the night before obviously celebrating I had a few drinks that day before we got on the boat and they thought it'd be a good idea to get out on the jet skis I've been on this not these ones anymore because they wrote them off they wrote them off they actually crashed into each other at pretty much full speed oh my god Brad Hogan Shane Watson had a collision on the jet we were all sitting up watching them and you could just see that something was going to happen sure enough they clipped each other on these jet skis and and and damage and yeah no not to them they just got they just got flown through the air and whatever else but the jet skis were in a slightly yeah they're not usable no they we got it we they got them back they got them back onto the the mothership but no what a day it was you know they're they're they're the great memories you have from the game being able to celebrate like that together as a group and totally and as because once again crickets never been very good at that it wasn't well can you remember a celebration anywhere after a walk up we had we had a celebration in 99 when we won the walk up we came back here but had a parade in Sydney and a parade in Melbourne talking our offense the other day they haven't had a celebration since 2000 no I can't remember they haven't had a reunion like cricket just doesn't do what just doesn't do it well it never has never celebrated those moments is it conservatism I don't know what it is probably not want to spend the money yeah I think cricket is strutty but yeah so for us to be able to do that then for that day and I think we had a half the next day as well before we flew back but yeah pretty pretty special moments I know you're going to be commentating in a week's week or so this time we're going to put this out straight away so what do you think of the next ash series coming up what are you expecting um as opposed to what you're hoping for what are you expecting well I England might England might change their style they are they're I'm not going to even use the word stubborn it's not stubborn but they they've got themselves said in this in this way and style of play that they believe is the only way that they're going to beat Australia in Australia that so that's a style they're adopting to beat us as opposed to a style journey they started it two years ago yep but the only thought that they would have had in their mind is what how can we play what group of players can we have that are going to give us the best chance of winning a test series in Australia because they haven't done it for so long you know that they've only they've only won four test matches in Australia this century wow you serious four four test matches in Australia this century three of those were in one series so they needed to find a way a different way in style that they thought could win now what we saw last week they work in they were you know they were bossing the game they're in front they can they can do it again they can bounce back but they they just have to win those moments that I talked about if they're not if they're not in the mindset and the moment enough in the middle of a test match to say okay maybe it's just time to refine and change things a little bit here because this is what my team needs me to do right here and right now then they'll keep getting the same results whereas but I actually I still think it'll be a close series Australia one nail up could have easily been one nail down Hazelwood out still we don't know if Cummins is coming back so you know on paper it's probably one of our weaker sort of lineups but like I said it doesn't matter in Ashes if you've got a beat Australia you've got to beat the man for man and last week England went good enough to put him away because I've been him in Cummins has been in the net so like it looks like he's going well he's flying yeah so he I actually think he will play this week I interviewed him last week and he was pretty confident in what he was getting through but also more important how he was pulling up the next morning so I'd be surprised if he doesn't play well we're going this has been amazing for me like amazing opportunity for me thanks very much congratulations on a stellar career but thanks for being so honest so mate it's been really cool I tied the helmets off mate I can take the helmet off people get to understand me now a little - A little bit more than that, didn't it? - And I like your eyes like that. (laughing) - Thanks a lot.