Ricky Ponting, one of the finest batsmen in contemporary cricket and Australia's middle order bulwark of years, today announced his retirement from international cricket. Australian Parliament temporarily halted proceedings while current and former cricketers from across the world paid rich tributes to the batting legend, who would be retiring after the third Test against South Africa beginning in Perth tomorrow. Ponting has scored 13,366 Test runs from 167 matches at an average of 52.21, second only to India's Sachin Tendulkar who has scored over 15,000 runs from 192 matches. Ponting made his Test debut in 1995 against Sri Lanka at the same venue where he will walk into Test sunset.