It seems like only yesterday Ricky Ponting was the little boy with the naughty grin and a fondness for late nights, practical jokes and all things mischievous.
But life has changed.
The impish scallywag has blossomed to become one of the greatest success stories in Australian cricket history – our best batsman since Bradman – and a colossus of the game.
It surprised no one yesterday that he became the International Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year. Nor would it surprise anyone if he wins it again next year.
He was also awarded the gong for captain of the year and was anointed captain of both the Test and one-day world teams of the year.
"Playing cricket for Australia, you're in a really lucky position ... even up to today, there's been less than 400 players that have represented Australia at a Test match level in 120 years," said Ponting.
"So for me to sit here as captain of the Australian team, means you're one of the very, very lucky ones who have had an opportunity."
Ponting has surged to the top by being his own man. Though his life has been flushed into public view, he keeps a lot of himself to himself. The inner man remains hard to get to for all but his closest friends.
Unlike other stars, he has never bothered to curry the support of former Test stars turned commentators. Popular support has never worried him.
Being a star has never stopped him from being himself as evidenced by the journey, the night before an Ashes tour, when he travelled in the back of a mate's car with one of his racing greyhounds from Hobart to Launceston, feeding the dog a celebratory Kit Kat on the way home after it won at 12-1. Ponting left school as a 15-year-old and had to educate himself on the run.
The low point of his career came the day he surrendered the Ashes to England in August 2005.
But within a day he was planning a recovery mission by putting small building blocks in place.
Ponting has long left his working class roots in Mowbray but he has never forgotten them.
When he heard his old club needed a new clubhouse he told a Tasmanian bakery not to bother sending him a $10,000 cheque for doing a commercial for them.
He had it re-routed to the club which promptly turned it into bricks and mortar.
- ROBERT CRADDOCK