Australian cricket is set for one of its most emotional occasions tomorrow with the farewell of Test greats Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Shane Warne in the fifth Ashes Test against England at the SCG.The trio will be looking to bow out on top as Australia, already 4-0 up in the series, chase a rare whitewash.
Langer, the courageous opening batsman, today joined bowling legends Warne and McGrath in announcing the Test in Sydney would be his last for his country.
The trio's departure will conjure memories of when Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh quit Test cricket together after the fifth Test against Pakistan in Sydney 23 years ago, leaving Australia with a sizeable hole to fill.
McGrath and Warne, with 1,263 Test wickets between them and the scourge of English batsmen for over a decade, have been match-winners in a golden era of Australian cricket, while the plucky Langer forms part of Australia's most prolific opening partnership with Matthew Hayden.
The Ashes series ended as a contest in the third Test in Perth, but Ricky Ponting's team has the chance to inflict the ignominy of a 5-0 series clean sweep, last achieved by Warwick Armstrong's 1920-21 Australians at home.
"As hard and emotional as it is to not wear the baggy green cap again I know in my heart it's the right thing to do," Langer told a press conference this morning.
"They say to go out on your own terms and when you're on top of your game, and I feel as if I'm doing that."
The Australians, driven by the loss of the urn in England in 2005 after 16 years' ownership, have put an ever-widening gap between them and Andrew Flintoff's demoralised tourists.
England sunk to a series nadir with an innings and 99-run capitulation inside three days after winning the toss in last week's fourth Melbourne Test.
"We don't want to leave this country having been turned over 5-0. We want to win a game of cricket," said England skipper Andrew Flintoff.
If there is a glimmer for England it is Australia's susceptibility in "dead-rubber" Tests.
South Africa won the third Durban Test in March 2002 after losing the first two of the series and England won in Sydney on the last Ashes tour here in January 2003 after going down in the first four Tests.
But the McGrath-Langer-Warne farewell and the quest for a whitewash will focus Australian concentration, vows Ponting, who senses "an opportunity now to create something very special for this team in Sydney."
"We've done everything in our power to make that be the way. England wouldn't be happy with their (Melbourne) performance," he said.
"When we are playing as well as we are and we're on a bit of a run then I'm sure all those little doubts turn into big doubts. We've seen that through this game."
Australia shunned the opportunity to call up spin specialist Stuart MacGill to bowl in "leggie" tandem with Warne, preferring to keep the balance of the team that flattened England in Melbourne.
But the tourists, with few options to strengthen their lineup, may turn to Middlesex off-spinner Jamie Dalrymple to team up with Monty Panesar on the spin-friendly Sydney pitch.
Flintoff has spoken of putting on a belated show for the army of English supporters who have trekked out to Australia in the vain hope of seeing their boys retain the Ashes after last year's euphoric series.
But four heavy defeats, both on the field and pyschologically, have Flintoff's tourists on the verge of leaving Australia with one of the worst touring records and recriminations centering on coach Duncan Fletcher and Flintoff, who also act as the two tour selectors.
Australia have won their last 11 Tests and a fall in their intensity looks England's only way of salvaging something out of the wreckage.
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