Surrey's capture of Ricky Ponting is well worth the punt Much was made of Ponting's signing last week. Maybe too much. He is here for only two months, and it is not as if he has never played county cricket, having appeared briefly for Somerset. He is 38, retired from international cricket and, with a host of other ageing imports from other counties such as Gary Keedy, Jon Lewis, Zander de Bruyn and Vikram Solanki, it could be argued that Surrey might be better served looking to their own youth structures. But the signing of Smith (who has also played for Somerset), on a three-year deal, was much more significant, a fleeting stroll back down a scarcely-trodden path to a time when the very best overseas players played not just a whole season but many of them consecutively. Smith's acquirement surprised me, and rather made a mockery of my previous calls for overseas players to be banned from the County Championship, my feeling being that they had become a waste of money. I do in general still believe that. The unceasing international calendar, with an ever-increasing plethora of domestic Twenty20 tournaments embedded within it, precludes the availability of the top-quality operators. Therefore replacements are whisked in and out of counties like patients at a surgery. Usually those who dally briefly do not perform. Alex Hales's immediate impact in the Big Bash recently was rare. Matt Prior's struggles out there were more usual, as further evidenced by, say, Moises Henriques" brief calamitous stint with the bat for Glamorgan last summer. It takes time to adapt. However, if any player can make an impression in such a short time, Ponting probably can. He will certainly be eager to ensure that is the case. On the field he has always been the toughest of competitors, and that was never better illustrated than by an incident at his new ground at the Oval in the 2009 Ashes when Prior hit him in the mouth while fielding at silly-point. There was blood everywhere, and Prior thought he should inquire after Ponting's health. The Australian's response is unprintable here, but it was not polite. Off the field Ponting has always just been the kid in love with cricket, who, aged four, sported a T-shirt proclaiming: "Inside this shirt is an Australian Test cricketer." He has always been willing to help others. During the 2005 Ashes the then Glamorgan batsman Michael Powell, who had never met Ponting, speculatively asked for some batting advice. He expected an "I'm busy" response, but over an hour later the pair were still talking. Surrey's cricketers should take note. They can learn so much from Ponting and Smith. But Surrey should not expect bums on seats automatically. At Glamorgan crowds did not flock initially to watch Waqar. But once we started winning they did, singing "Waqar is a Welshman." Spectators seek other things first before a star import, like predictability of fixtures (as the mainly Friday-night Twenty20 in 2014 will bring) and, most importantly, a successful side.