Ricky ponting autobiography of a face

Much as Ricky Ponting's commanding presence at No.

3 went a long way towards dictating the fortunes of the Australian team for a decade, a lot is riding on the success of his autobiography. For the publishing and bookselling industries, At the Close of Play is a commodity not dissimilar to the Australian cricket broadcast rights that channels Nine and Ten recently paid well over the odds to secure: a rare "sure thing" in a marketplace increasingly fragmented and fickle.

Ponting received a handsome advance for his life story, leaving his publishers at Harper Collins to hope for a windfall akin to those reaped by the tomes of Steve Waugh and John Howard.

Something else is at stake across the 700 pages also, a matter weighty enough for Ponting to be articulating at some length on his current promotional tour around the country.