Whatever stellar feats he achieves for the rest of his career, Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting will forever be known as the captain of the side which lost the Ashes to England.
Ponting - who has just released his Ashes diary - told Fran Kelly, the host of ABC Radio National's Breakfast program, he was "over it", even if others are still obsessed with Australia's dramatic 2-1 series loss.
"I'm well and truly over it actually," he said. "Even doing something like this [his book launch] today and speaking about the Ashes all over again is a little bit frustrating for me because it's something that has been done and there's nothing we can do to change what happened through the Ashes tour."
With a gift for understatement, Ponting described the loss of the Ashes as "unbelievably disappointing".
"The whole tour, for one reason or another, we just never seemed to really get any momentum going," he said.
"We started off the one-day series very poorly. We managed to be playing our best cricket towards the end of the one-day series and win the one-dayers and then we took that form into the first Test.
"We played a very good first Test match and from that moment on things were sliding down hill for us.
"England stood up and played very well and our team, unfortunately, in the big moments in every Test match - when the big moments were there to be won it was England who won them, not us, which was very unusual for our team."
Ponting said hindsight had helped in evaluating why and how the Australians lost possession of the Ashes urn.
He said a big part was his team's failure, for the first time, to win those "big moments" in each Test. But there were other factors too.
"A lot of the individual players were put under a lot more pressure than they ever probably have in their whole careers before," Ponting said.
"For one reason or another we just didn't react as well as I would have liked us to and I'm sure the individual players would have liked either.
"But you can't take anything away from England. They were very good, they were very well-prepared for this series, they played some very good cricket and they really tested us."
Ponting's style of captaincy was also criticised in some quarters in the wake of the loss. But he said he took that criticism on board.
"You try and take on board anything that's going to help you out along the way," he said.
He said perhaps his captaincy was lacking something.
"Maybe there was. I haven't really sat down and analysed that side of it too much," he said.
"When you're in the heat of battle you're always thinking that you're doing the right things.
"Coming home I still felt that I was doing the right things by the team.
"But the buck stops with me. I know that and I knew that coming home I was going to take, wholly and solely, the responsibility for losing."
But Ponting flatly rejects assertions that the mix of the Australian team was wrong and some of the players were too old in England.
"No I don't [accept that]. I think that's been proven [wrong] since we've been back," he said.
"The reason that we had, and still have, guys of that sort of age in our team is because they are the best players in Australia, and a lot of them are the best players in the world.
"You look at [Glenn] McGrath, look at [Shane] Warne, look at [Matthew] Hayden look at [Adam] Gilchrist and those guys - I mean, they're all 33 or 34 years of age but they are some of the best players Australia has ever seen and will be for the next few years.
"As I said, that's what made it so difficult to put our fingers on it at the time - as to why we weren't performing the way we wanted to.
"If you look back, it was a lot of our big name players - our more senior players - through the Ashes tour who were out of form.
"When you've got a few guys - match winners in your side - that are down it makes it a lot more difficult for the other guys as well."
The captain said the presence of the old hands was an important factor going forward.
"It's vital, and there's no doubt that's one thing we missed as well. Glenn [McGrath] only played three of the five Test matches I think ... which was frustrating for us and frustrating for him."
Ponting said even the more experienced players amongst the Australian squad come to him for advice now and then.
"I think that's been one of the great strengths of our team over the years - we've all known each other's games very well and been very happy to share advice," he said.
"When we came back from England we certainly didn't have a winning theme around the team," he said.
But since then the Australians have swept all before them.
They thrashed the World XI in three one-day matches and the Super Test then belted the West Indies by 379 runs in the first Test in Brisbane.
"The first Test match against the West Indies has started on the right note for us so the summer is certainly heading in the right direction," Ponting said.
So who does the Australian believe is the best cricket team in the world?
"Australia's the best team in the world. I said that when we left there [England] and I'll continue to say it," he said.
"For us to have been recognised as the best cricket team, I think it took a three or four year period - or probably even longer than that - before everybody said yes, Australia are the most outstanding team in the world.
"England have done it for a couple of years now - they've beaten almost everyone that they've come up against.
"I'm sure this series that they're having in Pakistan will be a good one and a tight one and if they win they'll have bridged the gap even more to Australia.
"But I think they would have to beat us in Australia to be regarded as the best team in the world."
And what are the chances of that happening when England are in Australia next summer?
"Don't worry, it'll be a great series and I'll be surprised if we don't win."