Three-time World Cup winner Ricky Ponting has been roped in by Washington Freedom as their head coach forward of the second season of Main League Cricket (MLC) in america. He’s set to exchange fellow Aussie and his mentor Greg Shippherd, who coached Freedom within the inaugural season and propelled them to a third-place end. The previous Australia captain will stay related to the US-based franchise for the subsequent two years.
Ponting expressed elation at his appointment, lauded Shippherd for his work at Freedom and is wanting “to construct on his work” forward of the second version of the match.
“I am extraordinarily excited to be becoming a member of the Washington Freedom in 2024. Cricket is admittedly on the rise within the US and I am wanting ahead to being concerned in Main League Cricket. I have been impressed by everybody concerned at Washington Freedom, and, whereas it is a bit surreal to be changing my mate Greg Shipperd, there’s most likely nobody higher to arrange a profitable franchise. I am able to construct on his work as we glance in direction of the approaching season,” Ponting mentioned in his assertion as reported by ESPNcricinfo.
Ponting is available in with truckloads of teaching expertise, and Freedom can extract loads of advantages from the identical. The captain of the 2003 and 2007 World Cup-winning groups is at present serving as the pinnacle coach of Delhi Capitals within the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Along with that, the 49-year-old has additionally had brief teaching stints with the Australian males’s cricket staff and Mumbai Indians.
Michael Klinger, the Common Supervisor of Cricket at Washington Freedom, believes that Ponting’s appointment “is a large coup for Main League Cricket and cricket in North America”.
“Ricky was one of the recognised and revered cricketers on the earth throughout his enjoying days and is now one of the revered and coveted coaches on the worldwide circuit. It’s a big coup, not just for Washington Freedom and the partnership with Cricket NSW, however extra holistically for Main League Cricket and cricket in North America normally.
“Gamers need to play for Ricky. He has an unbelievable eye for expertise and a talent in bringing the most effective out of these gamers. Ricky will work with a few of our CNSW coaches and gamers who’re a part of the Washington Freedom arrange and we sit up for constructing on the foundations for fulfillment from the primary version of MLC,” Klinger mentioned.