In his News Ltd column Glenn McGrath looks back at his wonderful career and the 13 months in the caravan. He plans to be a fast-bowling mentor when he has settled into retirement.

I had played only a handful of Sheffield Shield matches for NSW before getting the call-up to play for Australia against New Zealand at the WACA in 1993. I met half of the team for the first time when I turned up in Perth. I played against Allan Border the match before against Queensland, now he was my captain.

At the toss of the coin, Craig McDermott asked if I was nervous. I said I wasn't. He said: "Don't worry it will get worse the more you play."

McGrath said he first thought about walking away after the Brisbane Test. “That thought become stronger in Adelaide, and that's when I spoke to Jane and my manager and friend, Warren Craig. By the end of the Perth Test I had made up my mind – it was time to go.”

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sun Herald McGrath was the “most cerebral of fast bowlers” and Trevor Marshallsea looks at his quirks.

On www.news.com.au Andrew Symonds is “heartbroken” at the departures of McGrath and Shane Warne and Bob Simpson remembers McGrath on the West Indies tour of 1994-95 while Steve Waugh recalls the first time they met.

In the Sun Herald Mark Waugh talks about McGrath and Warne.