Ricky Thomas Ponting (born 19 December 1974 in Launceston (Launceston, Tasmania), Tasmania, Australia), nicknamed Punter, is the current captain (Captain (cricket)) of the Australian cricket team. He is a specialist right-handed batsman (Batting (cricket)), slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler (Bowling (cricket)). He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket (Cricket in Australia) and plays in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Ponting made his first-class debut (First-class cricket) for Tasmania in November 1992, when just 17 years and 337 days old-becoming the youngest Tasmanian to play in a Sheffield Shield match. However he had to wait until 1995 before making his One Day International debut, during a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand in a match against South Africa (South Africa national cricket team). His Test debut followed shortly after, when selected for the first Test of the 1995 home series against Sri Lanka in Perth, in which he scored 96. He lost his place in the national team several times in the period before early-1999, due to lack of form and discipline, before becoming One Day International captain in early-2002 and Test captain in early-2004.

After being involved in over 130 Tests and 300 ODIs, Ponting is Australias leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket, with more than 23,000 international runs as of September 2009. He has scored 38 Test centuries—behind only Indian Sachin Tendulkar (43)—and third for most runs and centuries in ODIs behind Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.