Nothing unusual about that, I can almost hear you saying. But wait a moment — this long chat took place over the phone, with me being in Colombo and my friend being 9000 kilometres away in Sydney. It was five in the evening here and 10.30 in the night over there — and despite the great distance separating us, I could hear him as clearly as if he was in the next room.

And the best thing about this long international telephone conversation was that HE was paying for it!

"Mate" he exclaimed (he usually calls me that, now that he has been living in Australia for a couple of decades, instead of saying ‘Machang’ as he used to do in the old days before he migrated down under and became Aussified) "I just can’t wait for tomorrow."

The reason for this inordinate impatience on his part was that he was holding tickets for the fifth Ashes cricket test match which was to be played the following day at the Sydney Cricket Ground. It was to be the final day of the final game in the long awaited contest between the Aussies and their ancient rivals, the English — and by Thursday evening when he called me the Australians had got themselves into a virtually unbeatable position. Friday would be the day they would deliver the coup de grace to the "old enemy". And it would be a series whitewash — Australia winning all five matches in the series, a deed that had only been accomplished once before when an Australian team led by the formidable Warwick Armstrong achieved this feat in 1920-21.

"It’s not just because I want to see the Poms crushed that I am looking forward to going for the match tomorrow" he explained, "Friday the 5th of January will be one of the most memorable days in Australian cricket. It will be the last Test match for Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath — and I will be there to see them as they farewell the world of Test cricket."

He and I had been classmates — and cricket fans — from the time we were in primary school. In those faraway days before Sri Lanka (or Ceylon as we were known in the English speaking world) played test cricket, most of us schoolboys would be supporting Australia during the test matches of the fifties and sixties — with our heroes being players like Richie Benaud, Keith Miller and Neil Harvey. Now my friend is a naturalized Australian (although he is still an ardent Sri Lanka supporter whenever we play against Australia) who "barracks for the Aussies" and is a regular spectator at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

I must admit that I too will be sad to see Warne and McGrath retire. Both players have picked the best moment to go — when they are still 0n top, when they are still wanted, when people are asking WHY are they retiring rather than WHEN are they retiring. Warne certainly did it in style — picking up five wickets in his farewell test on his home ground in Melbourne last week, and playing a bold innings of 71 on Wednesday to end up as the highest scorer for his team in the Sydney game. He goes out as the man who, at the time of retiring, had taken the highest number of wickets in test cricket.

And McGrath too, although he will be available for the One Day team for the World Cup this year, is calling it a day while he is still in his prime. Few know of the perseverance he showed to pursue a cricket career — born in Narromine, a small country town in outback Australia, he worked as a carpenter, a bank clerk and a farm worker after leaving school. But he single-mindedly followed his dream, moving to Sydney and living for over a year in a caravan while he played club cricket, worked in the bank and practised — and practised — and practised. He was finally selected to play for Australia at the age of 23 — and developed into one of the most successful fast bowlers of the present era.

I am happy for my friend that he was able to witness, live, one of the most moving episodes in Australian cricket.