I still have Ponting slightly below the other three great Australian batsmen I have seen (Chappell, Waugh and Border). For all those talking about his average, I remember the exact same statements when Gilchrist finished the tour of South Africa after his double and hundred and averaged 61. What does he average now? 49? Bottom line is, statistics are not too important. In 1986, four players still playing in test cricket averaged over 50 (Border, Javed, Richards, Gavaskar). Now there must be about 15. More importantly, only five additional players averaged over 45. This clearly shows one can't compare people by using figures, like so many are doing nowadays.

Ponting's in great form and he really is a delight to watch but there really was no escaping in test cricket 25 years ago when every test team had at least one world class opening bowler. Botham and Willis was a far better test than the current England line up. New Zealand was always a test, Pakistan were much stronger - as were India (and let's not mention the West Indies).

I personally believe the record of Chappell in World Series cricket and his continual performance against top class bowling (with the exception of one bad patch in 81 I think against the West Indies) puts him at the top of this list. Border was consistent, you always knew what you'd get from him - his performance in the dark days of Australian cricket was immense (the defeats to NZ) and his Caribbean tour in about 83 was probably the best defiance the quartet EVER had. Finally Waugh, once he won his position back, he put together a five year run of form against quality bowling that unfortunately we will never really get to compare with Ponting.

Let's just remember the record of Hayden as a very sobering thought. How good is he? I would suggest he was really pretty mediocre if the truth be known.