Australian captain Ricky Ponting and several of his teammates were left fuming and vowed redemption in next summer's Ashes series after a pre-recorded comic speech by former English spinner Phil Tufnell last night.
As Ponting made his acceptance speech for winning the Allan Border Medal as Australia's best cricketer for the second time, he fired back at Tufnell, who had lampooned the Australians earlier in the evening over their Ashes defeat last year.
Tufnell made particular reference to Ponting's heavily criticised decision to bowl first after winning the toss in what was to prove a losing second Test at Edgbaston, and to Shane Warne's dropped catches off Kevin Pietersen at The Oval. Pietersen went on to post a match-saving century that ensured England a 2-1 series win.
Tufnell, who had a bowling average of 38.14 and a batting average of 2.73 against Australia in 12 Ashes Tests, said: "Warnie, you batted like a maestro, bowled like a wizard, and I know you are friends with Kevin Pietersen, but did you mean to drop him twice?
"Do you wake up at night thinking you dropped the Ashes? You can call Herschelle Gibbs for advice, I can tell you he will be awake."
Tufnell then thanked Ponting for his decision to bowl first.
Ponting later took aim at Tufnell when former captain Border handed over the medal.
"If we needed any more inspiration, I think we have all got it tonight," Ponting said.
"Looking at that short video from Phil Tufnell there, a few guys on my table were pretty fired up by that.
"I am not sure whose idea it was, but it certainly made us a bit hungrier to take on the Englishmen in 290 days' time.
"I am looking forward to the Englishmen arriving in less than a year's time, and I will guarantee that we will put up a better show than we did in the Ashes only a few months ago."
After the presentation, Ponting added: "You could see that it had sort of touched a soft spot with everybody. I probably wouldn't have minded it so much if it had been someone who had taken part in that series.
"Someone that never really did anything against Australia in any game that he ever played was a little bit harder to cop, I guess."
Ponting polled 83 combined votes in Test and one-day cricket, three ahead of Mike Hussey, with Brett Lee (77) in third place. Votes were awarded through the year on a 3-2-1 basis by the players, umpires and media, but Test votes were weighted two to one.
Ponting was a consistent performer in both forms of the game, as shown in that he was not named either the best Test or one-day player of the year.
Warne was named Australia's top Test performer for the first time, while Hussey emerged from a four-way tie to be named the premier one-day player of the year.
Ponting, who won the AB Medal in 2004, enjoyed a superb year with the bat at a time when his captaincy was heavily questioned.
Test greats Dennis Lillee and Ian Chappell were critics and felt Warne should have been made skipper after Australia handed over the Ashes.
Ponting brushed aside these questions by not only dominating with the bat, but by leading his team to victory over a World XI, and comprehensive series victories against the West Indies and South Africa.
He scored 2608 runs at 55.49 with nine tons and 13 half-centuries in a combined 41 Test and one-day matches, and vaulted to No. 1 on Test cricket's batting rankings.
This included a world best 1596 Test runs at 69.39 with seven centuries.
Ponting also became the first man to post centuries in both innings of his 100th Test, against South Africa at the SCG.
The honours continued to flow in that game as he motored past Mark Waugh as Australia's third-highest run-getter, became the third-highest century-maker for Australia and the third most-prolific Test No. 3 in history.
- JON PIERIK