Changing face of Ponting's Adelaide

[tamim_saif]

November 21, 2012

Like any adult looking on as the family home is subject to major renovations, Ricky Ponting views Adelaide Oval's reinvention with a mixture of emotions. As roomy, convenient and "state of the art" as the new stadium will be, the old was a place of great beauty, history and charm, a cricket ground in the truest sense, and a second home for Ponting.

This week the world will see the ground in its state of reconstruction, offering players, spectators and television viewers one final lingering view of St Peter's Cathedral and the Adelaide skyline. By next summer's Ashes Test they will be blocked almost entirely out of sight by the encircling new stands designed to accommodate as many as 50,000 spectators for the AFL clubs set to call the oval home from 2014. Ponting will mourn this vanishing vista, for it has offered him his favourite atmosphere in which to play cricket over more than 20 years in the game.