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Saturday night’s announcement, English time that is, that Graeme Swann was retiring from first-class cricket brought the curtain down on the career of this country’s most successful off-spinner.
I found out earlier that day and although I’ll admit to initially being taken aback, it wasn’t really that much of a surprise when digested more thoroughly.
The bare statistics will show, at international level anyhow, 255 Test wickets, 104 in one-day internationals and 51 in their Twenty20 equivalent, but they don’t come close to telling the whole story.
For want of a better description, Graeme poured cold water over the theory that traditional finger spin couldn’t be successful at the top level.
Being able to operate in both an attacking and defensive role, he was at the forefront of England’s rise to the summit of the world rankings and his departure will leave a gaping hole in the side that won’t be easily filled.
I’ve been asked on many an occasion, have I been surprised at how well Graeme has done and the answer has always been the same – not surprised by the fact that he has been successful, but by how dramatic and consistent the success has been.
The talented but impatient bowler that made his name on Northamptonshire’s arid surfaces became, via a move up the M1 to Nottinghamshire, one of the world’s best due to a combination of cricketing maturity and skill refinement to the point where his presence in the national side was deemed to be essential to any potential success.
Twice England have travelled to Australia in the past three years with Graeme held up to be the pivotal figure in the series on both occasions.
Whether or not his influence was overplayed, that would have been unthinkable not so long ago but that was the extent to which his stock had risen.
And the way the Australians have attacked him in the last three Tests, which has been particularly impressive if painful to watch, has been akin to receiving a huge compliment.
I knew months ago that he probably wouldn’t appear in another limited-overs game for England and fully expected the Sydney Test in January to be his last.
A mid-series farewell may be far from ideal but to leave when you want to is the scenario the majority of sportsmen would prefer, so every other detail, when it comes down to it, is irrelevant.
You can’t please everybody, and judging by some of the ill-judged nonsense that has been spouted you would think Graeme had left a battlefield halfway through an offensive.
But the number of considered comments posted on various websites from both sides of the world would suggest that there are many who prefer to look at the previous five years and not just the past few days.
He’s not deserting a sinking ship as that particular vessel is already down, he isn’t leaving his colleagues in the lurch as there are always others to fill the breach and any sportsman’s decision to call it a day is intrinsically selfish anyway.
The real crux of the matter is that if your mind is elsewhere then your body will generally follow suit.
With a right elbow that has undergone two serious operations, a significant factor that has passed too many by, the timing was right for Graeme who does not just walk away from anything lightly.
As a character in a drama I was watching the other day said (I think), “When it’s over, it’s over. You put your sunglasses on and go home.”
Without trivialising anything, that is exactly what it is, a sportsman retiring – nothing more and nothing less, exactly the same as when Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, others who felt their race was run, stood down.
And all those irate England fans shouldn’t be wasting their energy worrying about why Graeme has walked away, but about how, with a particularly bare spin bowling reserve, he is going to be effectively replaced.