Aussie Exodus

The English press continue to keep their eyes and pens trained on the two Australian giants who announced their retirements in succession.

While saluting the combined efforts of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath - 963 wickets in 102 Tests - Vic Marks, in The Guardian, surmises that Australia's cricket team are about to undergo the greatest upheaval they have ever experienced without the intervention of a world war or Kerry Packer. He concludes that come 2009, Australia will be weak in the spin department, and wonders just what Australia's line-up will be next November.

In the Telegraph, Mike Atherton says that Warne has a great voice, even if it betrays his dual existence.

Over the past few days, in Melbourne, children have been more interested in Warne's departure than Santa Claus's arrival – even if, as in the case of my five-year-old, they have no idea who he, Warne, is. He has been everywhere – front page, back page, editorial, leading news item and closing – his exit from the stage calculated to echo as closely as possible his domination of it, that is in the fullest glare of publicity with a dash of theatre thrown in.

No wonder Glenn McGrath wasn't keen on announcing his impending retirement simultaneously: the fast bowler wouldn't have been given a second look.

Rounding it up in The Independent is Stephen Brenkley, who terms Warne a "shrewd cookie" who saw that if cricket was a business, it was a business called show.