Cricket:Shane Warne will end his impressive Test career in the next few weeks confident he has played for an extraordinary team in a special era for Australian cricket.
The 37-year-old leg-spinner confirmed cricket's worst-kept secret at a packed news conference at the MCG when he revealed the New Year Ashes Test in Sydney will be his last.
At the ground where his 143-Test career began, he will put his wear-worn shoulder through countless overs for the last time.
It will be the end of an era for world cricket and perhaps the beginning of the end of more than a decade of dominance by Australia, whose ageing side seem to have finally reached the end of the road.
Damien Martyn announced his retirement a couple of weeks ago, Warne has followed suit and 36-year-old seamer Glenn McGrath is also expected to finish at the end of this series, while Justin Langer (36), Matthew Hayden (35) and Gilchrist (35) may go soon.
Warne has 699 Test victims to his name - 186 of them England batsmen in 34 Ashes appearances.
And he said: "It's been a privilege to play in this team alongside players like McGrath, Gilchrist, Ponting, Langer and Hayden - these guys are pretty special.
"I suppose at times we take it for granted but they are pretty special players. It's a statistics-based game and if you look back I think most of the team's numbers would stack up against any team from any era."
Meanwhile, Australia's star-studded line-up have two more opportunities to firmly establish themselves in cricket history by becoming only the second side in history - after Warwick Armstrong's 1920-21 team - to complete an Ashes whitewash.
Despite Warne and possibly several other members of the side now looking to the future, the desire is still strong to write their names in history and join Don Bradman's 1948 Invincibles as Australian sporting heroes.
Warne continued: "The job is not done yet and there are still two Test matches to go.
"The way we are feeling in the dressing room at the moment, we feel the job is only half done.
"We want to win 5-0. We want to come out here in front of 100,000 people in Melbourne and win a Test and then go to Sydney and do the same.
"As far as I'm concerned we've got two Test matches to play and I want to finish the series on a high - if we can win 5-0 it will be a fantastic achievement for a great team."
Warne is convinced Australia's domestic cricket is strong enough to withstand the loss of modern greats like himself, Gilchrist and McGrath and still be able to dominate world cricket.
But former Australian captain Mark Taylor believes there is simply no replacement for Warne - even though the Aussies are able to introduce players like Shane Watson and Phil Jacques.
Taylor claimed: "He's unique - there is talk of McGrath retiring in the near future but Warney will leave a big hole because he does something no-one else can do.
"We've been very lucky to have him play for us and there is no doubt in my mind he has won many Tests on his own either through taking wickets or keeping the pressure on.
"Australia will sorely miss him. With Warney out of the team, I believe we will move back towards the pack. I still believe Australia can be number one but without Warney it's going to be much harder."
The achievements of Australia in winning 14 out of 15 Tests and the last 10 in succession since losing the Ashes in 2005 marked a golden period of Warne's career, who has claimed 76 wickets during that period.
Had England not won that series, however, Warne may have already left the Test stage to pursue a new career, which is expected to be as one of Channel Nine's new commentary team.
"I would have retired at the end of the Ashes in 2005," he admitted. "That would have been a good time to go but I felt there was some unfinished business to do.
"Since I was a young age, we've not liked the English to win anything and we lost in 2005 to a better side who deserved to win that series.
"It's been a mission of mine and the team's to get those Ashes back and we've done that - and whenever that happened was going to be my time.
"My journey and my ride in international cricket has been phenomenal. I don't think I could have written my script any better."