Ponting out of Third Test, TV network’s drastic move to protect Aussies

It’s emerged Ricky Ponting will not attend the Third Test with a TV network taking drastic action over its Aussie commentary stars.

Aussie TV commentators Mark Taylor and Mel Jones will have security staff with them when the Third Ashes Test begins on Thursday night (AEST).

On the same day it was revealed the Aussie team has called in extra security for the touring party’s families, it has come to light that the Aussie duo will also be protected by bodyguards during their work with Sky Sports across the Test at the notoriously rowdy Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds.

According to The Daily Mail, Sky Sports made its own call to bolster its security staff as a result of the ugly moment Ricky Ponting was verbally attacked by spectators during a segment he did for Sky Sports during the Second Test at Lord’s.

Ponting lightheartedly quipped he may have had to hide behind the broadcasting “cart” which carried a big screen TV backdrop when fans were heard yelling at him during a live segment filmed on the boundary at Lord’s.

The report also reveals Ponting will not be in attendance at the Third Test and will instead be on a scheduled family holiday in France — booked well before the start of the series.

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Nathan Lyon speaks to Ricky Ponting after the Second Test. Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.

Taylor and Jones will be the highest profile Aussie commentators that will be on the ground in Leeds with the series already at boiling point.

England fans have made no attempt to hide plans to verbally attack the Aussie team when it is out on the field after the Ashes rivalry exploded in controversy during the final day of the Second Test.

Alex Carey’s stumping of England’s Jonny Bairstow, when Carey fielded the ball and threw it back at the stumps as Bairstow left his crease before the ball was considered dead, has set the stage for one of the most heated tests in recent memory

The incident saw the crowd erupt and chant “same old Aussies, always cheating” with the topic “cheating” trending on social media.

The MCC members in the famed Lord’s Long Room also came under fire for their abuse of the Aussie team as the sides left the field for lunch.

But it didn’t finish there with the family of the touring party also copping abuse.

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The Australian’s Peter Lalor reported the team had requested the extra measures after the abusive fans at Lord’s left one staff member’s 11-year-old son in tears, while Steve Smith’s mother was forced to leave the ground early.

While they didn’t know she was Smith’s mother, the taunting fans turned on her when they realised she was Australian.

The 11-year-old was similarly taunted by fans at Lord’s and was seen later surrounded by members of the team on the balcony.

To add fuel to the fire, the Third Test is taking place at Bairstow’s Yorkshire home ground.

It may be a good thing Ponting was planning on skipping the Third Test after his comments about Bairstow’s dismissal carried around the world.

Australia’s greatest captain and Pat Cummins. Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.

The legendary skipper said on Wednesday Ben Stokes should have handled his post-match comments better after the England captain said he would not have made the same decision Aussie captain Pat Cummins made in electing not to withdraw its appeal of Bairstow’s stumping.

“The two things that separates both of these two captains is that Ben Stokes had about three hours to think about his answer,” Ponting told The ICC Review.

“Pat Cummins had about 10 seconds to think about what he was going to do and whether he was going to uphold it (the appeal) or not.

“It‘s pretty easy for Ben at the end (of the match) to sit down and give that point of view. But he was actually out there as the batting captain of his team. He could have asked there and then in the heat of the battle if he was thinking clearly like he said he was three hours later in post-game.

“If he was thinking enough, he would have said that to the umpires, ‘You know, was it over? Had you started to move? Is the ball dead?’ They were the questions that had to be answered then and not at the end of the game when he said it.”