MOWBRAY Cricket Club may not be just about Ricky Ponting, but in his mind, Ricky Ponting - the former Australian captain - is still Mowbray.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The club's most decorated player flew in from Melbourne for Mowbray's 60-year celebrations on Saturday night.
Ponting's love for the Eagles in the shadows of Aurora Stadium stretches well before even walking out to bat on Invermay Park.
As an adventurous Launceston nine-year-old, Ponting recounts getting up early on Saturday mornings, jumping on his BMX bike to, he swears, all parts around the north of the state to follow Mowbray's first-grade side.
"I made sure I was there before the team turned up," Ponting said.
"I was waiting outside the change rooms, then the change room doors would open up and I'd rush and find a seat.
"That's the way it used to be back in the early days.
"I'd stay around there all day and watch the game, but especially stay for the few stories they told at the end of the day, get back on my bike and ride back home."
It's a side of Ponting that he loves regaling in.
From the days when he was barely in high school, pads reaching up around his waist and already facing up to grown men, hooking and pulling bouncers to the boundary.
"To tell you the truth, I think one of the best things that ever happened to me was that I was playing against men at such a young age," Ponting said.
"I think I was 13 when I made my A grade debut.
"One of the other great things that had happened is that dad hadn't played in maybe 20 years, and he came out of retirement and played in my first year of third grade when I was about 11 in my first year of senior cricket.
"I had to have dad play to shoulder and look after me in my first year of men's cricket.
"So when you were playing against grown men, you'd have to find a way to cope and survive."
Family has been important to Ponting and he had a role model at the club when his uncle Greg Campbell played for Mowbray and also Australia in four Tests and 12 one-day internationals in 1989 and 1990.
Ponting, one of the country's greatest ever batsmen, paid tribute to the club that he considers an extension of his family.
"I just happened to be lucky to be surrounded by a lot of very genuine people that cared a lot about me," he said.
"They were always going to show me the ropes as a cricketer, but they also looked after me off the field as a person as well.
"There is no doubt my family upbringing and the fact I was around a club like this was the making of who I've become."