‘‘A lot of thoughts were going through my head around the time of the presentation,’’ said proud father Peter.

‘‘I was thinking how wonderful it was that Sachin Tendulkar presented James with the award and the sadness of Phil Hughes not being there.’’

And seeing his son take three wickets to swing a fifth World Cup in Australia’s direction made Mr Faulkner think back to some heated backyard cricket matches when James was growing up in Launceston.

‘‘I made him bowl to me one day and like most parents who bowl to their kids we had our own run-scoring system in the yard. I must have made about 300 and he wanted to give up. I just said ’Keep bowling’ and he didn’t give up.

‘‘About a year later I was doing the same to him. I couldn’t get him out but he wouldn’t let me stop. He just kept saying ’Keep bowling’. I reckon I was out there for about three hours.

‘‘That was also probably the last game of cricket we played together.’’

Mr Faulkner said his thoughts were as much about the future as the past as he savoured ‘‘a sense of euphoria’’ with 93,000 other fans at the MCG.

‘‘Really I’m gobsmacked by the potential future of that team. Guys like Mitch Marsh, James, Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith, Dave Warner — there are so many good young players that could be around for another one or two World Cups.

‘‘Mitch Marsh would make any other One-Day team in the world and be a star player so Australian cricket is in pretty good shape.’’

Mr Faulkner stood down as Tasmania’s chairman of selectors as James was emerging as an all-rounder at Launceston and was glad he did, believing he would not have selected James as early as Michael Farrell, Roger Woolley and Glenn Hughes did.

‘‘They had a lot of confidence in him having seen him at under-age carnivals and my attitude was always that young kids won’t let you down. Get them in there and give them a go.

‘‘That’s what they did with James and he has not looked back since. He was the beneficiary of getting a spot as a 17 or 18 year old and now that he’s 24 he’s got 40-odd One-Day Internationals and about as many first-class matches to his name and that’s a lot of experience to have under your belt.’’

Mr Faulkner, who joined the team’s celebrations with James’s sisters Lauren and Paige, suspected the player of the match award might be between James and retiring captain Michael Clarke.

‘‘I think the logic was that the bowlers won the game for the team. He sparked the collapse. Those two wickets [in the 36th over] turned the game on its head and that’s why he won it.

‘‘We had the Maxwells and the Finches around us and we were all pretty subdued and toey. We weren’t thinking about player of the match awards we were just thinking about winning the game.’’