'I made it pretty clear. I wanted full autonomy': Ponting's non-negotiable demand after leaving Delhi Capitals

Ricky Ponting’s impact on Punjab Kings has been nothing short of transformative. Taking charge of a team long associated with underachievement, the Australian legend has revealed that he demanded complete autonomy before accepting the job, and the results speak for themselves. Punjab Kings' head coach Ricky Ponting (L) speaks with team's player Shashank Singh during the Indian Premier League (IPL)(AFP)

Under Ponting’s watch, Punjab ended their decade-long play-off drought, thanks in large part to a daring auction strategy that favoured uncapped potential over marquee names. By retaining only Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh, Ponting built a squad tailored to his philosophy of “playing differently,” unlocking the kind of fearless cricket he’s long envisioned.

Ponting was earlier the head coach of Delhi Capitals for seven years, and while the side did reach the final in the 2021 edition, the Aussie failed to end the side's title drought. During an interview with PTI, Ponting spoke about his time at DC and his switch to the Kings, stating that ‘full autonomy’ was among the first things that he demanded when he accepted the role with the Punjab franchise.

"I'm not sure if I had a point to prove. With the good squads that I had in DC, it was pretty evident to see where we made it with good players in that squad. We had three years in a row where we made the playoffs. One of those was into a final that Mumbai beat us in.

“I made it pretty clear that when I accepted the head coach's job (with Punjab Kings) that I wanted to have pretty much full autonomy over the way that we go about the coaching staff and the way that we go about putting the strategy together with the auction, our scouts did a terrific job,” said Ponting.

Hardly skipped a beat

After the IPL 2025 resumed following a week's suspension owing to military tensions between India and Pakistan, Punjab Kings were among the strongly hit sides in terms of player availability; they already had Glenn Maxwell and Lockie Ferguson unavailable due to injuries. Despite this, they finished at the top of the table with 19 points.

“We got the players that we wanted, whether they'd be younger players or more experienced overseas players. And that's been shown so far that, with (Glenn) Maxwell and Lockie Ferguson getting ruled out early in the tournament, we've hardly skipped a beat,” said Ponting.

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