FOR all the great knocks he has played, it was the one he received that has proved most significant in shaping Ricky Ponting into the celebrated cricketer he is today.
Ponting's career is littered with highlights, including his 96 on Test debut as a 20-year-old, his unbeaten 140 in the 2003 World Cup final in Johannesburg that secured the trophy for his team and his epic Test-saving 156 at Old Trafford this year.
Further milestones await him today when he will become the ninth Australian to play 100 Test matches.
The fact that, just two weeks after his 31st birthday, he becomes the youngest to reach that mark indicates many more records will fall to the right-hander who is now poised to overtake Mark Waugh as Australia's third-highest Test run scorer.
What the statistics don't mention is the time the consummate dismantler of fast bowling failed to duck a bouncer, and the impact that moment had on the future path of his cricket career.
Two former Test team-mates believe the incident in Sydney's infamous Kings Cross in January 1999, after Ponting was celebrating victory in a one-day international by engaging in a late-night drinking binge, was a marking point in the Tasmanian's career.
The ramifications were a black eye, a frenzy of front-page coverage, a $5000 suspended fine and a three-match ban from the limited-overs team.
"Maybe the best thing that happened to him was the scuffle in Kings Cross because he started to grow up after that," said Michael Slater, who was Test opener when Ponting made his debut in December 1995.
"Sometimes when something bad happens, it forces you to reassess and take stock and that's when the development process can be a quick one because you realise you have made a mistake. It's not until you have a bad time that you are forced to grow as a person to come out the other end.
"I'm sure he wishes it never happened, but I'm also sure that was a real turning point for him, and the reason why he's captain of the Australian cricket team now is because he's matured into this really steady, lovely human being."
Mark Taylor, Ponting's first Test captain, agrees that the person who emerged from that tawdry night into the dawn of intense scrutiny and national indignation was far more ready for challenges that lay ahead because of the experience.
Taylor said part of the problem stemmed from the fact Ponting had scarcely seen the world beyond his native Tasmania when he first played for Australia, and had to cope with his successes and failures within the rarefied national team environment.
Understandably, Ponting does not view the embarrassing lapse and ensuing shame-faced confessions as an essential rite of passage.
"You don't need to have those sorts of setbacks to make you better or to wake you up," Ponting said yesterday.
"I don't think that needed to happen for me to be here now, in the position I'm in as a guy who is about to play his 100th Test and has made 26 Test centuries. It's a long time ago now, but it's always brought up and spoken about. It's happened, and we've all learned and got on with it."
Pressed as to whether he agrees that the lessons learned in the wake of that scrape have helped him become a more mature and responsible person, Ponting can't help let slip a glimpse of self-effacing humour. "I guess it has ... for most of the time," he smiles.
Ponting's personality has altered much since he developed a reputation as a knockabout party person whose fondness for a beer almost matched his thirst for runs.
Nowadays, it is rare to find Ponting enjoying anything other than a glass or two of wine over dinner. And as a captain, his public persona is one of a considered, straightforward leader who dislikes double talk and hyperbole.
The nature of Ponting's rise meant he was always destined for a fall; it was simply a question of how far and how heavy. From the time he turned his back on Brooks High School as a 15-year-old growing up in the Launceston working-class suburb of Mowbray to attend the cricket academy in Adelaide, Ponting was expected to be Australia's next cricket superstar.
Former academy head coach Rod Marsh said as much after watching the precociously talented teenager face one delivery in the practice nets.
Marsh recalled how Ponting arrived and immediately chose to face towering South Australian (and ex-Test) fast-bowler Paul 'Blocker' Wilson, aware that his juvenile effrontery had fired up the aggressive quick.
"Characteristically, 'Blocker' bowled him a bumper first ball which Ricky calmly stepped inside and hit in front of square leg for what obviously would have been a four," Marsh said.
"At the time I was standing next to assistant coach Richard Done, and after watching that shot I said 'this kid will play for Australia'. It was as simple as that. One ball was all it took. He was so balanced as a 15-year-old. It was obvious right from the outset that he was something special.
"I recall at the time saying 'he's the best young batsman I've ever seen' and I also recall people saying 'you shouldn't be putting that much pressure on the kid'. At the time I replied 'the pressure I put on him now is a good grounding for when he plays Test cricket, because there's going to be a lot more pressure on him then'."
It wasn't only Marsh who predicted a stellar future for Ponting. Taylor was taken aback when his close friend and mentor, Neil Marks -- a former NSW player and selector -- suggested the then Australian skipper push to have 18-year-old Ponting included in the 1993 Ashes touring party.
"I recall thinking 'hang on, this kid has only just started playing'," Taylor said. "But to me Neil Marks has always had a pretty keen eye for cricketers, and he thought Ricky was that good. I hadn't seen Ricky play at that stage but I thought to myself 'he must be good'. Then when I eventually saw him I thought 'yeah, I can see what they mean: he's got fast feet, he's a good fieldsman and he's athletic'."
For all the plaudits and predictions, Ponting took time to find those fast feet at Test level.
After 20 matches he managed just two centuries, was averaging less than 40 and had twice been dumped from the strong Test middle order. The frustration built and undoubtedly contributed to his off-field woes.
His strongest advocates admitted they were surprised he had not simply stepped into the Test arena and dominated from game one.
"I honestly thought that as a youngster he would make a lot more runs than he actually did," Marsh said. "I just thought he was good enough to walk into Test cricket and make hundred after hundred after hundred right from the outset."
Having confronted his drinking-related issues and, shortly after, met his wife-to-be, Rianna, Ponting then found himself able to tackle his demons while at the batting crease.
Twice after the Kings Cross incident -- in the following domestic summer and on tours of India and England in 2001 -- he endured a string of low scores but was eventually able to snap them with impressive, timely centuries.
Since then he has transformed himself into the backbone of Australia's batting line-up, the world's top-ranked batsman in Test cricket and a captain with an imposing winning ratio of 66.67 per cent. Of the game's regular captains, only Ponting's predecessor Steve Waugh (71.93) boasts a better winning strike rate.
Not that Ponting could draw on leadership experience from his younger days. Due to his talent, he was forever the youngest player in his childhood teams and, therefore, never called on to captain. It's the one aspect of his cricket apprenticeship that Marsh concedes may have been overlooked.
"I don't think he captained the academy in the two years he was there, probably because I decided it was more important that he got runs rather than worried about captaincy," Marsh said.
"I guess in retrospect that was a mistake by me because I probably should have let him captain the side."
That explains recent criticism that Ponting is too conservative as a leader, and relies on advice from team-mates rather than leading instinctively.
"I thought his captaincy during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa was outstanding, but in recent times I haven't been that impressed; I think he's become a little bit too conservative," Taylor said. "So I was delighted with his declaration in Melbourne last week, having gone from an ultra-conservative decision in Perth to a very positive one a week later. That was more of the Punter that I know. He made a calculated punt."
- ANDREW RAMSEY and MALCOLM CONN