"Forget 2005 (when England won the Ashes at home), we're focused on business at the Oval."
"Forget 2005 (when England won the Ashes at home), we're focused on business at the Oval."
That was Ricky Ponting's dire message on the eve of the crucial Ashes Test starting today.
All fired up and ready to deliver, Ponting wrote in his syndicated newspaper column yesterday: "Let's make one thing clear. I am not going into this series-deciding Test at the Oval seeking revenge for 2005.
"It's never been unfinished business for me. There's been a lot of talk about revenge for losing the Ashes here four years ago, but you can't do that.
"Once that series is gone, it's gone. You can't change history. All you can do is prepare to do your best in the next series you play and our next series against England was amazing. We won 5-0 in Australia a couple of years ago to right a lot of the wrongs from '05.
"The last series here was about 50 Tests ago. This is a complete different set of circumstances with very different teams. There are only four in our touring party of 16 who were involved back then u2013 Michael Clarke, Simon Katich, Brett Lee and myself...
"Some of the mistakes we made last time and over the last month or so, we've learnt from. It's important we don't make them again in this game."
Ponting went on to refer to the article of Michael Atherton in London's The Times newspaper. (KHALIDOSCOPE, Aug 17).
"Mike Atherton made an important point last week about how we play.
"He talked about real toughness in cricket and questioned whether England had it.
"The respected former England captain said that toughness had nothing to do with glaring and sledging and all the other peripheral stuff that seems to get talked about and highlighted.
"Real toughness in cricket is executing your skills well under extreme pressure.
"When opponents are staring and talking to you, I've always said that's not being tough.
"That counts for very little. Unless you can back that up with great skills under extreme pressure, then all that other stuff is rubbish.
"It's usually when you can't stand up under pressure that the stuff comes out. I've always thought that about the game."
Ponting went on to describe the present week as "as exciting a week as I've been involved in"
He said: "It's obviously got bigger and bigger as the battle has gone along. The guys are getting more excited about it by the day.
"I'm not going to talk to them about how big it is because I think the more you do that, the younger blokes can start to tense up a bit.
"We've kept a pretty good lid on it so far. We had a couple of days off last week to relax before building up to this Test."
Speaking to the media, Ponting also wondered how the fact that today's Test will be Andrew Flintoff's farewell will affect performances.
The Australian skipper was a member of the squad when Steve Waugh, his predecessor, called it a day.
"It's going to be interesting to see how it all pans out. Is the game to be all about that stuff?
"I'd imagine (Andrew) Strauss and the senior players in the team would be trying to guard against that and make sure it's not all about him," Ponting said.
"It was an interesting time to announce his retirement. When he did, I felt there was some other stuff going on behind closed doors regarding the retirement.
"That's up to England to worry about."
However, the Aussie skipper did concede: "When he (Flintoff) does get on a roll, they can be a totally different side, we know that."
With the series level 1-1 and England desperately needing a win at the Oval to win back the Ashes immortalised in 1882, the weather gods may not smile kindly upon the home side.
Heavy rain is forecast for the first day of the Test today, continuing into day two, although to a lesser degree.
Although Ponting and his team would prefer to win the Oval Test, they would be quite content to retain the Ashes.
"I'd love to be able to win the series," Ponting said. "But if we happen to be 1-1 at the end of it, then holding on to the Ashes would be pretty sweet."
Meanwhile, excitement over today's Test has reached fever pitch, with tickets to the 23,000-capacity Oval, normally priced between the equivalent of Rs 4,000 and Rs 7,000, selling for as much as Rs 84,000 each.
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