Fast forward to January 4, 2003. Stephen Rodger Waugh, the most successful Test captain the world has ever seen, is leading his side on a lap of honour at the Sydney Cricket Ground. England have just been beaten by an innings, for the fourth match in succession. And so, for the first time since Warwick Armstrong's men overwhelmed a war-ravaged English side in 1920-21, Australia have completed a 5-0 Ashes whitewash. And there's more. It is Australia's eighth successive Ashes series victory - another record. It is Waugh's 34th win in 45 Tests as Australian captain, beating the old mark of 32 set by Allan Border in twice as many attempts. It is Waugh's 156th Test match, bringing him alongside Border as the most-capped player in Test history. And, by gritting his teeth and carving his way to 102 not out in Australia's only innings, Waugh has drawn level with Sir Don Bradman himself on 29 Test hundreds, as well as becoming only the third batsman in history to pass 10,000 Test runs …

Now picture this. It is September 2005 and Australia have just completed their 28th consecutive home Test victory, by an innings and 342 runs over Bangladesh at Darwin. But for Waugh, the occasion is a disaster. He has just been dismissed for his second duck of the series, caught at leg gully off Tapash Baisya, and his average, which, two years previously had stood at 51.88, has tapered off to 41.77, below that of his twin brother Mark.

"Aye," say the future sages of the game, thumbing through Wisden and flicking through the archive footage, "that Junior, he was the real talent. Imagine how good he might have been if he'd been given half his brother's chances ..."

Knowing when to call it a day is the hardest thing for any sportsman. Few, however, have the finishing line decked out in quite so many wreaths and banners and flashing neon lights as Waugh does now. He may not fulfil every one of his boundless ambitions in time for his Sydney showdown in January, but what man ever has? (Except for Alexander the Great, and even he was bored to tears ...) At least Waugh would be able to say, as his precedessor Mark Taylor did on the same ground four years ago, that he did it his way.

But what is this, we hear? Barely moments after putting England out of their misery at Perth, Waugh was musing about prolonging his career. "I have not thought too much about retirement," he was quoted as saying. "At the back of my mind is a series victory in India." He surely cannot be serious. No man in his right mind could pass up such an opportunity to leave the arena as a champion … could they?

It seems they could. Waugh made his name as the most cussed and unwavering batsman of his era, and now he appears intent on breaking that name on the same block. His beloved baggy green has already been on a trip to Greg Matthews's Advanced Hairhat Studios, but no man can rage against the dying of the light forever.

For Waugh is not merely in the twilight of his career. He is in terminal decline, and his struggles this series against a broken English side have been painful to watch. Since his first - and still greatest - Great Last Stand, that one-legged 157 at The Oval in 2001, Waugh has averaged a desperate 27.70 in 15 matches, barely half his previous career average of 51.87. He secured his place for the Ashes with his second Great Last Stand, 103 not out against Pakistan at Sharjah, but even the sheer gumption of that innings pales when you remember what came before. How great is it to bully a side that has just been bowled out for 59 and 53?

Both Waugh's predecessors, Border and Taylor, were faced with a similar dilemma towards the end of their tenures, as indeed was the last great Aussie leader before Border, Greg Chappell. But none of them was captain of such a supremely dominant team as Waugh, and none of them would have been able to disguise any tailing-off in their form.

Taylor, of course, suffered a horrendous drought prior to the 1997 Ashes series, but when he called it quits 18 months later at the age of 34, he was back at the top of his game. In the final 12 months of his career, he averaged 55.25 in 12 matches - set against an overall 43.49 - including that Bradman-equalling 334 not out at Peshawar. In that innings, as in his career, he left the fans wanting more, not less.

Border, as one might expect, required rather more prising from the crease. But even he was far from done when the selectors finally persuaded him out of office. His final year included a third successive Ashes victory - which he himself secured with a double-century at Headingley - and an average of 45.60 from 15 Tests (compared with 50.26 from 156 overall).

And then there was Chappell, whose final-year form was the most majestic of all. He played in only six matches, but averaged 71.66 with two centuries, including 182 in his swansong against Pakistan at Sydney in January 1984. From the point of view of personal satisfaction, his timing was immaculate - not least with a daunting trip to the West Indies around the corner.

But Chappell's departure has a postscript, and it is one that Waugh in particular should heed. On that same day at Sydney, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh both joined Chappell in retirement, and in an instant, Australian cricket had its backbone ripped clean out. It took the rest of the decade to fill the void.

The current Australian side is not getting any younger. And whether he likes it or not, Waugh is the oldest by a distance. For the moment, his team is powerful enough to carry his workload for him, but if he is still loitering when time is called on Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, Australia face the sort of void that not even the greatest sides can surmount. The selectors, an unsentimental bunch, are unlikely to allow that to happen. But Waugh deserves to be recognised as one of the alltime greats, and he deserves to leave on his own terms.

But he's steadfastedly refusing to think along those lines just yet. "We would like to play a side that would make it really tough," he concluded. "I don't want to be big-headed, but some of the fixtures have been a bit easy."

That's because you've won, Steve. Let go. There's nothing left to prove.

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