Former Australian captain Greg Chappell has showered rich praise on Australia’s two-time World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting at the third annual charity dinner of The Chappell Foundation (TCF) on Tuesday (February 11) in Sydney.

Ponting, Australia’s most successful captain and one of the great batsmen of the world cricket, was the chief guest of the annual charity dinner which was organized to raise funds for the homeless who were the victims of the recent bushfires tragedy in Australia.

It is being said that the charity dinner has raised over Rs 2 crore that was held at the iconic SCG where about 500 cricket fans graced their presence the occasion.

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Well, at the charity dinner, the controversial former captain has named Ponting as the best Australian batsman he has ever seen in his lifetime. He also believes that the legend is the greatest batsman that his country has produced since Sir Donald Bradman.

As per reports in Mumbai Mirror, Chappell said at the event at SCG: “He is certainly the best Australian batsman I have seen in my lifetime.”

Ponting racked up 13378 runs with 62 half-centuries and 41 hundred at an average of 51.85 in 168 Tests, while amassed 13704 runs with 82 fifties and 30 centuries at an average of 42.04 and career-best of 164 in 375 ODIs for Australia between 1995 and 2012.

Noteworthy, an Indian training shirt autographed by Sachin Tendulkar was sold for $ 1400 (Rs 70,000)), a cricket bat signed by the winning Indian team from the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy was sold for $ 1550 (Rs 82500) MS Dhoni and other players were among the items auctioned at SCG.

There was also an item Virat Kohli’s autographed shirt, which was couriered from New Zealand, where the Indian team is playing, but the courier could not reach on the time and foundation has decided to auction it at a future fund-raiser.

(With Mumbai Mirror Inputs)