When Ricky Ponting overslept on his debut and made Boony’s big moustache quiver

Ricky Ponting is one of the greatest cricketers of all time. But the legend almost ruined his first-class debut due to the classic AM/PM conundrum while setting his bedside alarm clock.

Ponting shared a funny story about the start of his senior career during his appearance on the 'Bloke In A Bar' talk show. His story includes another Australian icon, David Boon.

When Ponting made his domestic cricket debut for Tasmania in a Sheffield Shield match at 17, the big-moustachioed Boony was the captain. "He had played probably 70-80 Test matches for Australia when I'm making my debut for Tassie," Ponting said.

"I'm 17 years old, we're playing an away game in South Australia. I'm rooming with my best mate at the time, Michael James Di Venuto; he is a year older than me," said the now 50-year-old, retired as the most successful captain in international cricket.

Ponting and Di Venuto decided to stay disciplined on the eve of the match by remaining in their hotel room, "have room service, watch a movie, be in bed nice and early, get up ready to go for tomorrow". "It was my job to set the alarm clock next to the bed," Ponting said.

He was woken up by what he thought was the alarm going off, but it was the room's phone ringing. "'Where the bloody hell are you?' It was Greg Shipperd, the state coach,” Ponting said. He and Di Venuto had overslept, and when they rushed down to the ground after a quick shower, Boony and the rest of the team had already started their warm-up.

Ponting knew he had upset Boony by the look on his skipper. "He was grumpy, big moustache... and whenever he got a bit angry, the moustache used to quiver a bit. When I looked at him and saw his moustache quivering, I'm like, 'Oh my God, this couldn't be any worse'."

Ponting said Boony had told the rest of the Tasmanian players to ignore the late-comers. "It was frosty, to say the least."

But Ponting was lucky to be not dropped and went on to forge a "130-40 run partnership" with Boony and made a fifty on his debut. "We batted well that day... and as I walk back into the room, the alarm is going off. I set it off for the PM. Not the ideal start."

Ponting scored almost 25,000 first-class runs and retired as one of the finest batters in international cricket, with more than 13,000 runs in Tests and ODIs, besides leading Australia to two World Cup titles.