It is hard to say whether he knew he had that coming or not, but former Australia captain and currently part of Channel 7’s commentary panel for the Ashes 2021-22 between Australia and England, Ricky Ponting was given a surprise on his 47th birthday.
To celebrate the birthday, the entire commentary crew included Ponting’s long time teammate Matthew Hayden and Damien Fleming as well as English legend Sir Ian Botham. Ponting was presented with a green pitch cloured towering cake with a bat in it by Hayden and asked to speak a few words on the occasion, to which Punter obliged.
Ponting, who made his debut for the Aussies in an ODI in February 1995 against South Africa at Wellington New Zealand, went on to play 375 ODIs, 168 Tests and 17 T20Is for the Kangaroos before hanging his boots on a 17 year-long international career in December 2012.
In his career, Tasmania born scored a total of 27,483 runs in all formats combined, hitting a total of 41 centuries on his way to those runs.