That’s it folks, I’m done

Irsquove been writing for more than fifty years but the time has come and this will be my last columnIn my playing days I asked former Australian captain Richie Benaud if retirement was a difficult decision ldquoNo Ianrdquo Benaud replied wisely ldquoitrsquos easy Yoursquoll know the right timerdquoAlways astute Benaud was correct Retirement from journalism is similar to cricket mdash I knew the time was rightI will miss filing a column as writing has been a favoured task A writing career spanning more than fifty years means I surpassed my journey both as a cricketer and a broadcasterA justifiable part of writing is itrsquos all your own work it might be rubbish but at least itrsquos your rubbishAlso ReadChampions Trophy 2025 India vs Pakistan The day arrivesI wrote my first column in longhand and then typed it up Afterwards I thought ldquothatrsquos wasting a lot of timerdquo so I dispensed with the longhand writingSomeone laughingly likened my typing skills to the lsquoEaglersquo method ldquoYou search and swooprdquoThe influence of Pulitzer prizewinning writer lsquoRedrsquo Smith was substantial He always strove for the right descriptive word and in the days of the typewriter stated ldquoYou havenrsquot got a column until yoursquore knee deep in opening parsrdquoEarly days of journalismSmith also added ldquoNo column is enhanced by alcoholrdquo I observed that rule almost exclusively but having just retired from cricket I forgot it once in my early days of journalismI met a few mates in the bar as the game was interrupted by rain After having a few beers I suddenly realised the game might be called off but I still had to file a columnWith a copytaker exhorting me to hurry I finally finished the column despite my fingers missing the correct key a number of times I read the column the next morning and it was absolute codswallop so I decided never to drink again before finishing my columnDespite that stumble I never missed a deadline mdash came close a couple of times but was never lateMy wife BarbaraAnn has been a positive influence both as an excellent subeditor and also by telling me ldquoRead the accomplished journalists at least then yoursquoll know what good writing looks likerdquoTalented magazine then website owner Eric Beecher gave me my first writing job in 1973 He later organised a meeting with Graham Perkin the editor of the Age who contracted me to write for the newspaperWhen we first met Perkin asked if Irsquod like a ghost writer I said Irsquod like to write my own stuff for six weeks and he could then judge I never heard from Perkin so consequently writing has been all my own work Sadly Perkin died way too young at age 45Irsquom extremely grateful to my bosses of more than two decades Clayton Murzello of Midday and Sambit Bal from Cricinfo theyrsquove given me free rein and plenty of encouragementThere have been many pleasures from writing notably Sachin Tendulkar combating Shane Warne in Chennai 1998 Other highlights included writing about the genius of Brian Lara Ricky Pontingrsquos aggression and VVS Laxmanrsquos classic 281 at Kolkata 2001I also enjoyed writing a number of books Some of the early humour books were done in conjunction with journalist star Australian Rules fullforward and World Series Cricket organiser Austin lsquoOckerrsquo Robertson Working with Ocker improved my writing of humourUtmost satisfactionThe most satisfaction Irsquove had from writing books was the last one Chappelli mdash Life Larrikins and Cricket I had a desire to write short stories not necessarily about cricket so that book gave me a lot of satisfactionFor around 40 years Irsquove been writing on a computer The improvement over using a typewriter is mainly the ease of being able to cut and paste Itrsquos a big advance on having to discard then rewrite copy paperHowever the time has come to close the writing section of my computer I wish each and every one who has helped and befriended me along the way all the best in their future endeavours