Ponting praises IPL's role in promoting young talent

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting today praised Indian Premier League for its role in promoting young talent, saying that many Indian youngsters benefited from the T20 tournament.
"It's great to see what IPL is doing by promoting the youngsters and we are all getting a look at them. I always talk about how you judge how good some of these young Indian players are," Ponting said at the 'Aaj Tak Salaam Cricket' conclave at a city hotel.
The fiercely competitive Tasmanian said he enjoyed the India-Australia rivalry during his career and also commented on the rise of Indian cricket over the past decade.

"We always had a great rivalry. I can't remember a game that hasn't been played at a high competitive standard. We have been fierce competitors. I believe it should be in all international crickets. I loved every opportunity I had to play against Indian cricket team," Ponting said.
"I really saw cricket in this country grow and become the powerhouse of cricket. The players who are representing India now or the IPL franchises are unbelievably talented players," he added.
Talking about the 2003 World Cup final which India lost to Australia, Ponting said he was doubtful if his team could have won the match if it had to be replayed the next day due to rain.

"As far as I remember, that time the rule was if the game was washed out, we had to come out and play a whole new game. That was what I was most worried about. We played so well in the first innings. We were on such a great high, if the game was washed out and we had to come back and play it out again, I wasn't sure if we could go out there up to that level at a short period of time to do the same thing all over again," he said.
"So as it happened, the rain came in, it was a quick storm. It was over and done with and then we got back out into the field and we tried to rush through the overs as quickly as we could," he added.