For much of his career Michael Clarke has been groomed to succeed Ricky Ponting but, as Peter Costello found out, succession plans don't always follow the script.
It has been said the position of Australia Test captain is the second-highest office in the land behind only the prime ministership. And in the coming years Clarke may find out just how hard it is to become top dog.
Ponting's announcement earlier this week he is retiring from international Twenty20 cricket in a bid to prolong his Test career is not insignificant to Clarke's ambitions.
The move is designed to maximise Ponting's chances of leading Australia to the 2013 Ashes series in England and righting, at least partially, the wrongs of 2005 and 2009.
Ponting will be 38 by then so will have to defy the ravages of time to retain his position.
Steve Waugh was 38 when he retired but limped to the line, as did Matthew Hayden, who quit aged 37 before being pushed.
Ponting, the country's most prolific Test run-scorer and its best batsman since Don Bradman, is superior to that pair.
Unlike them, he also has the luxury of dropping down the order, from the pressure-packed No.3 slot, to ensure he does not leave too big a hole once he departs.
Although Ponting, who averages a relatively lean 42.72 from his past seven series, has shown signs of slowing down in the past two years, he is challenged only by Clarke as Australia's best batsman.
His recent record also shows he is at his best at the start of the series when freshest and best placed to handle the considerable pressures which come with the role.
Since November 2005, Ponting averages 72.57 from the opening Test of each campaign as opposed to 50.25 from all other games. Hence the decision earlier this week.
To get to 2013, Ponting - under the current Future Tours Program which expires in May 2011 - must get through 34 Tests and another 12 months on top of that.
Sixteen games are against lowly quartet Zimbabwe (two), Bangladesh (two), New Zealand (five) and the West Indies (seven).
His most searching run will be in the spring of 2011 when Australia faces six Tests against Sri Lanka (three) and South Africa (three) on foreign soil.
Should Ponting still be around in 2013 it will be as captain, for Australia does not let its skippers play out their terms on the back bench.
Clarke will be 32 by then and have good reason to consider his time may have passed him by.
In the past 50 years only Steve Waugh (33) was older when he assumed the post.
If Ponting quit in the next two years, Clarke, despite murmurs to the contrary, would be anointed unopposed though Marcus North, currently 30, has his admirers.
Extend that to four years and the risk of Clarke losing form or being injured grows, as does the possibility of being trumped by a member of the next generation - for example Callum Ferguson or Phillip Hughes.
Like Costello, Clarke will never challenge for the leadership. Australian cricket does not reward coups.
Clarke's leadership aspirations now rest more on the fortunes of Ponting's bat than his own.