Ricky Ponting to retire after Perth Test. Will Sachin Tendulkar follow suit?

As Australian batsman Ricky Ponting finally announced his retirement from international cricket at the end of the third Test against South Africa beginning Friday, a lot of things he said during the hastily-called press conference stuck a chord. They also, ironically, threw up a series of questions that Sachin Tendulkar needs to answer, to himself if nobody else, as speculation gains momentum on the Indian legend’s own career.

“I think the timing is just right, coming at the end of the series. Gives, whoever my replacement is, enough time to get into the team structure and start afresh with a new series. These are things that have always been important for me,” Ponting said.

Tendulkar is in a position to do the same. The Test series against England, a tough battle, will also be the end of India’s Test outing in this calendar year, and with the next Test series only in February, give any player enough time to settle down.

“My preparations have been as good as it has always been. I scored runs in the (Sheffield) Shield but when the big moments came, I wasn’t able to deliver for the team,” Ponting said.

Tendulkar came into the series on the back of a century against Railways in the Ranji Trophy, which indicated his scoring form was back. But through the series, he has scored a grand total of 29 runs. Worse, in the second Test, he walked in with the team needing him to hang around the crease but managed to stay for 42 minutes, both innings included. He failed the Indian team when it needed him most.

“Over the last 12-18 months I have not been consistent. I have had very good starts and prolonged periods of not playing at the level I am expected to. In my own eyes, the reason’s been consistent failure,” the Australian said, when asked if there was any particular moment when he felt he had to go now.

Those good starts have included a 221 and two half centuries for Ponting; Sachin has scored a grand total of 153 runs in his last 10 innings, his last three-fugre mark coming in January 2011. Ponitng was also dropped by the selectors for ODIs in February this year and hasn’t played the shorter format since then. Sachin remains an integral part of the Indian team in ODIs, picking and choosing his competitions.

“Decision not made by the selectors, it’s been made by me,” Ponting said when asked about the role of selectors, implying that despite all the pressure from all sides, the final call was taken by him, to ensure he went out before being kicked out.

Sachin, though, has left it to the selectors to take a call on his future, according to reports, avoiding the responsibilty. The selectors, and the BCCI, in turn, have thrown the ball straight back into Sachin’s court, saying he would know when to quit and doesn’t need anyone to tell him, which may be true. but with Sachin himself reluctant to quit and no one else seemingly brave enough to take a decision, there doesn’t appear a resolution of the status quo anytime soon.

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Scottsdale Gun Club Defends Family Photos With Santa And Rifles As Tradition …

Families who want to pose for photos with Santa while holding on to firearms will once again be able to do so at the Scottsdale Gun Club in Arizona.

“This is our third year doing this at the Scottsdale Gun Club, and every year it continues to grow larger and larger, a lot of folks turning this into a regular holiday tradition,” Ron Kennedy recently told “Fox Friends.”

Kennedy went on to explain that the gun club was looking to “add a little holiday spirit to people’s second amendment rights to be able to carry and purchase firearms.”

According to the club’s website, people are invited to pose with Santa and his machine guns at a starting price of $10.

“Santa’s back with his bag of goodies,” the promotional materials read.

The club already held one day of photo shoots on Nov. 17, and they’ll be holding another on Dec. 2.

In the past, guests have been invited to pose with Santa and a wide range of firearms, including pistols and and modified AR15s.

This isn’t the first time the event has prompted national attention. Last year, the Associated Press described several of the Santa-plus-arms pictures, some of which included young children:

One image shows Santa in a wingback chair with a snowflake background, a Christmas tree behind him and flanked by an $80,000 machine gun and a tripod-mounted rifle. Next to Santa is a man standing behind a boy, who is holding an unloaded AR-15 with an attached grenade launcher.

In another photo, Santa cradles a toddler dressed in camouflage, while a man and woman stand close by with rifles with foldable stocks.

At the time, Democratic state Rep. Steve Farley said the photos were inappropriate.

“To involve machine guns and Santa in a celebration in the birth of Jesus Christ is the worst kind of heresy I can imagine,” Farley told the AP. “I would suggest that the people who created this read some of the New Testament.”

When asked by “Fox Friends” about about Farley’s objections and, specifically, the Tucson shooting that wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others, the club’s manager responded by saying that people don’t have to participate in the event if they don’t want to. He also stressed the safety precautions that the club takes during the photo shoots, such as removing the firing pins and not allowing people to place their fingers on the triggers.

As Mediaite noted, the Scottsdale Gun Club has been the site of three self-inflicted shootings since 2007. Two of those shootings were considered suicides, and the third was accidental, according to the Arizona Republic.

(h/t The Raw Story for the find.)

Also on HuffPost:

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• 1981: The Attempted Assassination Of President Ronald Reagan

  on March 30, 1981, President Reagan and three others were shot and wounded in an assassination attempt by John Hinckley, Jr. outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Reagan’s press secretary, Jim Brady, was shot in the head.

• 1993: The Brady Handgun Violence Act

  The Brady Handgun Violence Act of 1993, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, mandated that federally licensed dealers complete comprehensive background checks on individuals before selling them a gun. The legislation was named for James Brady, who was shot during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

• 1994: The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act

  The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, instituted a ban on 19 kinds of assault weapons, including Uzis and AK-47s. The crime bill also banned the possession of magazines holding more than ten rounds of ammunition. (An exemption was made for weapons and magazines manufactured prior to the ban.)

• 2004: Law Banning Magazines Holding More Than Ten Rounds Of Ammunition Expires

  In 2004, ten years after it first became law, Congress allowed a provision banning possession of magazines holding more than ten rounds of ammunition to expire through a sunset provision. Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke told HuffPost that the expiration of this provision meant that Rep. Gabby Giffords’s alleged shooter was able to fire off 20-plus shots without reloading (under the former law he would have had only ten).

• 2007: The U.S. Court of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Rules In Favor Of Dick Heller

  In 2007 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled to allow Dick Heller, a licensed District police officer, to keep a handgun in his home in Washington, D.C. Following that ruling, the defendants petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

• 2008: The NICS Improvement Amendments Act

  Following the deadly shooting at Virginia Tech University, Congress passed legislation to require states provide data on mentally unsound individuals to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, with the aim of halting gun purchases by the mentally ill, and others prohibited from possessing firearms. The bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush in January of 2008.

• 2008: Supreme Court Strikes Down D.C. Handgun Ban As Unconstitutional

  In June of 2008, the United States Supreme Court upheld the verdict of a lower court ruling the D.C. handgun ban unconstitutional in the landmark case emDistrict of Columbia v. Heller/em.

• Gabrielle Giffords And Trayvon Martin Shootings

  Gun control advocates had high hopes that reform efforts would have increased momentum in the wake of two tragic events that rocked the nation.

  In January of 2011, Jared Loughner opened fire at an event held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), killing six and injuring 13, including the congresswoman. Resulting attempts to push gun control legislation a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/trayvon-martin-shooting-gun-debate_n_1413115.html” target=”_hplink”proved fruitless/a, with neither proposal even succeeding in gaining a single GOP co-sponsor.

  More than a year after that shooting, Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/trayvon-martin” target=”_hplink”gunned down/a by George Zimmerman in an event that some believed would bring increased scrutiny on the nation’s Stand Your Ground laws. While there has been increasing discussion over the nature of those statutes, lawmakers were a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/trayvon-martin-shooting-gun-debate_n_1413115.html” target=”_hplink”quick to concede/a that they had little faith the event would effectively spur gun control legislation, thanks largely to the National Rifle Association’s vast lobbying power.

  Read more a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/trayvon-martin-shooting-gun-debate_n_1413115.html” target=”_hplink”here/a:

• Colorado Movie Theater Shooting

  In July of 2012, a heavily armed gunman a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/aurora-shooting-movie-theater-batman_n_1688547.html” target=”_hplink”opened fire on theatergoers/a attending a midnight premiere of the final film of the latest Batman trilogy, killing 12 and wounding scores more.

  The suspect, James Eagan Holmes, allegedly carried out the act with a number of handguns, as well as an AR-15 assault rifle with a 100-round drum magazine.

  Some lawmakers used the incident, which took place in a state with some of the laxest gun control laws, to bring forth legislation designed to place increased regulations on access to such weapons, but many observers, citing previous experience, were a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/batman-shooting_n_1690547.html” target=”_hplink”hesitant to say/a that they would be able to overcome the power of the National Rifle Association and Washington gun lobby.

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