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MELBOURNE - Cricket's greatest bowler and most controversial player today walked away from the game in Australia with satisfaction rather than sadness and a sackful of staggering statistics.
Shane Warne, 37, announced that the fifth and final Ashes test in Sydney would be his last game of international
cricket.
While he will honour two further years of a contract with English county side Hampshire, Warne will not play at any other level again.
Poised on 699 wickets and set to break the magic 700 mark at next week's Boxing Day test, the Victorian who has played 143 tests, revealed he had stayed on for the past year in a personal mission to regain the Ashes.
Australia achieved that feat with a 3-0 whitewash of England, completed in Adelaide, and Warne said the time was now right for him to step down.
He said he would have retired after the 2005 Ashes series in England had Australia won.
He will finish his 15-year test career where it all began, at the Sydeny Cricket Ground (SCG), in the fifth test against England from January 2-6.
Warne said he was certain this was the right time for him to step down.
"I thought I'd be sad," he said.
"A lot of people said 'You'll know when your time's up, you'll know when your time's right'.
"My time is now and I couldn't have asked for things to go any better," he said.
Warne is the only current player to be included in Wisden's top-five cricketers of the 20th century.
He said it was ideal to play his second-last test in Melbourne in front of his home crowd and family and friends, having reclaimed the Ashes, then finish at the SCG where he played his first Test against India in 1992.
He described his career as "unbelievable."
"My journey and ride in international cricket has been phenomenal. I don't think I could have written the script any better."
Warne will finish his international career at the pinnacle, with the Australian side in possession of every major international trophy.
In a career full of highlights and success, Warne still rates his 1992 Test debut as his top moment in cricket.
"It's still my proudest moment playing my first test match, an amazing feeling," said Warne.
Warne, who is in line for a prime position as a cricket commentator, said he was unsure what the immediate future held for him, but planned to devote more time to his Shane Warne Foundation for charity.
"I've been doing that via email, via phone, organising events and things like that is quite tough when you're travelling and got cricket commitments all over the world," he said.
"I can rock up and go to the office as normal and work out and plan an event and do all those things."
Warne is also likely to work with Cricket Australia helping the coming generations of young bowlers.
"I love Australian cricket...and I'll do whatever it is to keep Australian cricket at the top," he said.
"If that's to help out young spin bowlers, I'll do whatever it takes, I'll work with Cricket Australia to try to find out what that is.
"After the Sydney test I'm sure we'll all sit down with James Sutherland and work out how we go forward and is there a role there to play?
"Whatever it might be, we'll sit there and thrash it out and if Cricket Australia want me to do anything I'm happy to help, we'll just work that one out."
Warne also paid tribute to his ex-wife Simone with whom he now lives again, describing her as an incredible support throughout his career.
The pair divorced after Warne was exposed in a series of liasons with women but seem to have gradually patched up their relationship and were together as a family with their children last night on the eve of today's announcement.
"Who knows what's going to happen there," said Warne who described Simone as "my best friend."
- AAP
