One Year On, Ponting Has Raised His Game - Now It's His Cheer Squad's Turn

RICKY PONTING has started 2009 with a fresh spirit. Certainly he seems more relaxed than during recent dust-ups when he found himself ducking and weaving off the field even as he hooked bumpers on it. Perhaps he senses that this team belongs to him, that he can put his imprint on it, that it is not too late to recover the livewire seen in his early years.