It is right and proper to trumpet the greatness of Ricky Ponting, as he continues to enrich the game with the artfulness and authority of his batting.
But it does him no favours at all to suggest he could be the greatest since Don Bradman. And this is becoming an increasingly popular thesis.
This is nonsense. Such comparisons are foolhardy, especially when it is unclear whether Ponting, who will turn 32 next month, is the best batsman of his generation. Sachin Tendulkar, 33, and Brian Lara, 37, also have reasonable claims to this distinction.
Each of them has provided us with great pleasure and treasured memories and for that we should be thankful. In this instance there is nothing to be gained from nitpicking.
Definitive judgments of great players, individual performances and matches must always be given a historical context.
This being so, it must be recorded that, while spin bowlers have flourished, pace bowling stocks have been comparatively modest while these wonderful batsmen have prospered. No ill-will is intended. Nor is there an intention to diminish or devalue their fantastic achievements and records.
After all, they can do no better than master the bowlers that confront them.
Certainly they cannot be held responsible for the paucity of top-line quicks at a particular time in the frenetic evolution of the game. And, of course, such is their prowess they may have been just as dominant against the formidable fast bowlers who bestrode the game especially throughout the 1980s.
But we can't know that.
What we do know is that the extraordinary deeds of Allan Border must never be allowed to slip from the national consciousness.
Border, now an emerging beach cricketer of some repute, amassed a colossal 11,174 runs at an imposing 50.56 with 27 centuries when there was no such notion of an easy run in Test cricket and Australian cricket had fallen on hard times.
A man of enormous grit and courage who played 153 of his 156 Tests consecutively, Border never took a backward step and crafted some of his greatest hands against the most lethal and unforgiving of attacks, especially those from the West Indies.
It is often said, and correctly so, that he scored hundreds of runs from around his throat and chest region.
Border was an indomitable figure and recognised internationally as representing the spirit of Australian cricket.
Indeed, Australia's success of recent years has flowed directly from the Border years.
To be brutally frank, it would have been surprising if Ponting did not prosper against this England attack, which with the notable and expected exception of gallant captain Andrew Flintoff has made a lamentable start to this series.
To be fair, there was marginal improvement yesterday from Matthew Hoggard but Stephen Harmison and James Anderson are going to need to spend as much time with psychologists as with their coaches.
For the second consecutive day speculation was rife as to how the flummoxed England management will manage Harmison's collapse in confidence and capacity.
Many thought one of the bonuses of Flintoff's appointment to the helm ahead of Andrew Strauss was the closeness of his relationship with his enigmatic principal strike bowler. They are bosom buddies and share their social life on tour. If anyone could cajole Harmison into action surely it would be Flintoff. So far no go.
Interestingly, there is also the opposing view, that Flintoff is reluctant to take a tough line with his mate because the emotional bonds blind him to the message that must be delivered.
For England to recover from such a woeful start the matter must be resolved immediately.
Ponting played with customary aplomb as he built on the foundations he so meticulously laid on Thursday and seemed assured of his double century when adjudged by Steve Bucknor to be leg before to Hoggard for 196.
While his frustration was understandable, it was disappointing he did not acknowledge the applause of a record crowd who stood as one to pay tribute to him.
It was a small lapse in etiquette but a lapse nevertheless.
England could not have made a worse start to the series.
So poor was the England bowling -- Flintoff excepted, of course -- that team morale suddenly was around the ankles and it will need both man-management skills and supreme batting by Kevin Pietersen and Flintoff to change the course of this match.
In two days England has squandered all the gains made in England last year. They have allowed Ponting to dictate the mood and pace of the series; Justin Langer to silence his critics and bounce around the crease like a kid, and enabled Michael Clarke to make an easy return to his field of dreams.
And for good measure Glenn McGrath made the comeback to the Test arena he had dared to dream and Stuart Clark had to wait but a few moments for his first wicket on home soil.
What joy for Australia; such woe for England.
- MIKE COWARD