Aussies used to retire young - early thirties at the most - because there was no money in the game and they needed to cash in on their name in business to raise a family. There wasn’t the financial security english pros could had of the english county game to keep them going either.
Now with such huge rewards no-one is ever going to retire from the Australian team and high standards of training and care mean that players are fitter now in their late thirties then they were at twenty one.

This means their selectors are constantly faced with difficult decisions - easing out players such as Dean Jones, Marsh, Boon, Border, Taylor, the Waugh twins and now Darren Lehmann - to avoid the whole team aging ridiculously, retiring at once and landing them in the situation when Marsh, Chappell and Lillee retired at the same time to leave Australia bereft of a decently seasoned team for years.

I’ve been in Australia a lot over recent years and seen a lot of state cricket. There are no bowlers coming through. There is no spinner to replace Warne and the excellent Macgill, no fast bowlers of note either. A combination of a lack of young talent and the financial pull of endlessly extending their careers will mean that the attack we face in the summer is pretty much the same as the one we faced nearly ten years ago. The fact that Mcgrath and Warne will be the main Aussie bowlers should strike a note of optimism now, not despair as before.