There'll be no talk of Dennis Lillee when Ricky Ponting returns to the scene of his childhood cricketing heroics this weekend.
Players at the Mowbray Cricket Club are keen to welcome home their local legend, even without the Ashes.
Ponting is one of many cricketing stars returning to local clubs nationwide for Long Live Club Cricket Day on Saturday.
Ponting will join Northern State players Scott Kremerskothen, George Bailey, Dane Andersen, Xavier Doherty and Adam Griffiths in a Twenty20 match against the Tasmanian Tigers.
And it's a hero's welcome all the way for the embattled Australian cricket captain.
In Tassie, Ponting is still the kid who racked up 600 runs in a week and changed under-13s cricket forever.
Club chairman Juan Salter said a 12-year-old Ponting with a "horrendous-looking mullet on him" smashed four or five centuries in 1986 to raise his 600 total.
The next year, the Northern Tasmanian Cricket Association introduced a one-hour or half-century batting limit so all players got a turn at the wicket.
"Everyone knew (Ponting was talented)," Salter said.
"I always thought he'd play for Australia but it was still too early to judge.
"Sometimes people get to 17 or 18 and just tend to stop - they don't get any better - whereas he just kept getting better. He's probably at his peak now."
Salter said criticism of Ponting's recent performance during the Ashes series, including calls by Lillee for him to be sacked as captain, were unjustified.
"I just think Australians are too hard on their sportsmen. They forget too quick," Salter said.
"It will make him a harder person. Australia will play next year ... they'll be twice as hard as they were because they'll know what to expect now."
But there's no high expectations on Ponting for Saturday's invitational game.
"We're just looking forward to having him around because a lot of our junior players haven't even met him," Salter said.
"When he does get home to see his mum and dad, (normally) he just wants to relax at the golf club and have a couple of beers and have a hit of golf."
Ponting will give a media conference on Friday before speaking at the David Boon club lunch.
On Saturday night, he will speak at a Mowbray Cricket Club function where he will also be officially presented with life membership.
There are just 100 tickets left to the function, An Evening With Ricky Ponting, which will be held at Aurora Stadium from 7.30.
Tickets cost $50, which includes food and drink. To book, call Alan Eadie on 0419260052 or Michael Quill on 0409557260.
- DAVID JOYCE