
Should the marketing machine behind Australia captain Ricky Ponting choose to follow his predecessor Steve Waugh's lead and release a DVD of his inspirational Sydney Test performance, the world's best batsman has a ready-made title.
Despite crowning his 100th Test with centuries in each innings, and striking the winning boundary which lifted his team to a series victory after a record-breaking run chase, Ponting cited it "an almost perfect Test match".
And unlike Waugh, whose career-saving century against England at the same ground three years earlier prompted a heavily promoted DVD entitled A Perfect Day, Ponting's place in the annals of cricket's greats has never been more assured.
En route to another imperious hundred against South Africa yesterday - his 28th Test ton which is just one fewer than the legendary Don Bradman - Ponting drove the SCG ground announcer hoarse by posting a litany of personal milestones.
The 31-year-old became the heaviest scorer in the history of Test matches at the historic ground, the first to post twin centuries in his 100th Test and slipped into 10th place on the game's all-time run-scorers' list.
But even against the backdrop of leading his team through another undefeated home summer and reaffirming his new status as the number-one ranked batsman in the world, Ponting refused to describe his Sydney dream as his most memorable Test.
That, he claimed, was the heart-stopping draw against England in Manchester last August in which he scored an heroic 156 that kept afloat Australia's ultimately doomed Ashes campaign.
Asked if his previous 99 Tests had been overshadowed by the sheer magnitude of his personal feat in scoring 120 and an unbeaten 143 as Australia passed the previous best successful fourth innings run chase at the SCG (set in 1898), he was typically self-effacing.
"I don't think so. I've played in a lots of very good Test matches and Test wins and just because I've made a lot of runs in this one doesn't change that," Ponting said last night.
"I still think the Manchester Test during the Ashes was my most enjoyable Test match.
"To be able to bat in really tough conditions as I did there and almost save a Test match was very satisfying.
"But this one has to be right up there, and in a couple of days' time with more chance to think about it, then it will become even more special. There just seemed to be a lot of little milestones and things happening along the way that I haven't had a chance to digest yet. It's been almost a perfect Test match.
"It's always a nice feeling to hit the winning runs in a Test.
"It's something that you don't do all that often through your career. I've probably only done it once or twice before."
With five centuries from seven Tests in Australia this season, it is difficult to imagine the Tasmanian right-hander being able to squeeze any more from his enormous batting talent.
But so relentless is his pursuit for team and personal perfection that he refuses to concede he is at the peak of his powers just yet, which means ground announcers around the world had best rest their vocal chords over the coming five or six years.
"I feel really good about my game at the moment. Things are going along really well," Ponting said.
"You have patches over periods of time when you think you are batting as well as you ever have, and the last few innings I've been pretty happy.
"I was really happy with the way I played in Melbourne (during the Boxing Day Test) on that tough wicket first up, and these knocks have been enjoyable."
Ponting laughed off any comparison with Bradman (29 centuries in a remarkable 52 Tests).
"Whenever you get your name mentioned alongside the greats of the game it's a nice feeling, but at the end of the day it doesn't mean a whole lot," Ponting said.
"I won't get up (today) and think about cricket, but I will in a couple of days."
And within two months he will be leading his team to South Africa for a return three-Test series, by which time his rival skipper Graeme Smith hopes Ponting will have exhausted the rich vein of form he has been mining since his return from England last September.
"Moving on to South Africa, who knows. Things can happen in months," Smith said last night.
"We have seen (Matthew) Hayden's form change in the last three months, maybe Ricky's form can change too."
- ANDREW RAMSEY