Graeme Swann exited the international cricket stage with a swipe at what he sees as a lack of humility among certain fellow professionals.
England’s record-breaking off-spinner, who has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket with immediate effect, was careful to name no names as he described some players as being “up their own backsides”.
Swann has never been frightened to speak his own mind about the sport he loves and the characters he has met in it. In his autobiography The Breaks Are Off’, for example, published two years ago at the start of an England one-day international tour of India, he caused a stir with his appraisal of Kevin Pietersen’s lack of aptitude for captaincy.
In Swann’s estimation, Pietersen was “never the right man to captain England” – a position the mercurial batsman held only fleetingly before he and coach Peter Moores both lost their jobs at the start of 2009.
Swann, who was also critical of his former England and Nottinghamshire team-mate Samit Patel in his book, has called time on his international career in the middle of an Ashes series England have already lost after defeats in the first three Tests.
Pietersen is among a clutch of other thirty-somethings who helped take England to the top of the Test rankings at one stage, and have been central to three successive Ashes series victories, yet may conceivably also be nearing the end of their international careers.
Swann, who announced his retirement in Melbourne on Sunday, left others to draw their own conclusions when he said: “Some people playing the game at the minute have no idea how far up their own backsides they are.
“It will bite them on the a*** one day, and when it does I hope they look back and are embarrassed about how they carry on.”
Swann came to the uncomfortable conclusion, even as England were subsiding to defeat against Australia, that he could best serve them by retiring at the age of 34 – because he was no longer capable of making the impact required and expected of him.
He will therefore play no part in the final two Tests, as England seek to salvage some pride in Melbourne and Sydney.
Swann was a part of three landslide defeats in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth – and along the way, it dawned on him he was a spent force.
After three operations on his bowling elbow, he was powerless to stop Australia dominating England at every turn. That was enough to convince him, even with an English off-spinner’s record 255 wickets in his 60 Tests, he had no choice but to call time.
“This is very emotional – because it’s the end of everything I’ve known, everything I’ve loved,” he said, factoring in both his international and county allegiance.
“It’s not just England. In February I’m going to have to go to Trent Bridge and clear my locker out … I know that’ll choke me up.”
Swann can hardly believe he has risen to the heights he has, as a triple Ashes-winner and with a status among England’s most prolific spinbowling wicket-takers (255 wickets from 60 Tests) above Jim Laker (193 wickets from 46 Tests) and second only to left-armer Derek Underwood (297 wickets in 86 Tests).
“I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve achieved,” he added. “I still think there has been some mystical force that has helped me along the way – because surely it is not as easy as that.”
There were unpromising beginnings, when at the age of 20 Swann’s precocious talent was cast aside after a failure to gel with the regime of Duncan Fletcher – and it was only eight years later that he was granted a second chance to add to a solitary one-day international cap.
“I can scarcely believe it,” Swann said. “If someone could have placed me here back then and said ‘What do you think you would be bowing out with?’, I’d have said 30 Test wickets and 50 in one-dayers – with a handful more missing-the-bus tour antics.
“I feel like a lottery winner; I feel ridiculous.”
Swann takes issue with quibbles about the timing of his retirement, with the Ashes gone but England needing to limit the damage of series defeat.
“There will be people who say that, because there are people who pick fault with everything. But to carry on playing would be completely the wrong thing … if you are playing for the wrong reasons you are not helping anybody.
“If I played in this Boxing Day Test and the Sydney Test, it would be to experience another Boxing Day Test and Sydney Test and go out waving to the ‘Barmy Army’ as I walked off. “That sort of player doesn’t deserve to be in the team. You don’t build teams around guys like that.
“If I did carry on it would be purely selfish, because at the back end of a game my elbow lets me down completely.”
Swann began to sense the end was nigh, even as he was leading the way for England in their 3-0 home win over Australia four months ago.
“I took 26 wickets in the Ashes last summer – but truth be told, I don’t think I bowled that well.
“At the back end of the Trent Bridge Test, I could hardly spin a ball on a five-day-old pitch. I just knew deep down I wasn’t the bowler I was a couple of years ago.
“I’ve had to be on the defensive in three games (here), but I’ve had to be on the defensive in probably 20 out of my 60 Test matches and I’ve always thrived on it.
“I haven’t enjoyed doing it this time round, because I’ve felt like I’ve had one arm tied behind my back.”
