They say that spinners mature with age. In case of Colin "Funky" Miller, who has finally bowed out of first-class cricket at the age of 38 years and five months, this truism was both utterly appropriate and laughably inaccurate. The statistics of Miller's career are remarkable enough. After 13 seasons of Sheffield Shield cricket for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, Miller made his Test debut in Pakistan in 1998-99, at the ripe old age of 34. In the next three years he went on to tour every Test nation bar South Africa and Bangladesh, and picked up 69 wickets – eight more than Greg Matthews, his forefather in the extrovert stakes, from 18 matches – more than MacGill, the same as Spofforth. Both his average, 26.16, and his strike rate, 59.29, are more impressive than Shane Warne's, and his best Test figures, a matchwinning 10 for 113 against West Indies at Adelaide, speak for themselves. In 2001, he capped his achievements by winning the Allan Border Medal as Australia's Test cricketer of the year.

Yet this Miller's tale extends beyond statistics and accolades. On the 2001 tour of England, Miller was the non-playing cheerleader of the Australian side, changing his hairstyle – from yellow to green to red to blue – more often than some of his colleagues changed their underwear. During Australia's centenary-of-federation Test, against West Indies at Sydney in January 2001, he reduced Courtney Walsh to hysterics by unveiling his new, patriotic shade of electric blue when coming on to bowl.

As a man and a cricketer, Miller seemed to have hit upon the secret of eternal youth – no mean feat in a nation renowned for some shabby treatment of its ageing stars. Yet even his retirement was hastened by the state selectors at Victoria, who dropped him from the side to face New South Wales in February 2002, in favour of the 19-year-old legspinner Cameron White.

Miller had faced such trials and tribulations before in his career, but the recent emergence of Nathan Hauritz discouraged him from attempting another comeback. Miller had begun his career as a medium-pacer, but a foot injury suffered while playing club cricket in Holland forced him to cut down his run-up and resort to offspin. When he had fully recovered, the end product was a cricketer versatile enough to switch between the two as required – and against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in October 1998, he formed part of a four-man attack in the absence of the inimitable Warne.

The very fact that Miller could compete with Warne, both on the field and off it, is a testament to his competitive nature and brazen attitude. A showman without being a showpony, he will now return whence he came, and see out his cricketing days for Footscray-University in the Melbourne Grade competition. An itinerant and an extrovert, Miller was not so much the last of a breed, but an entirely unique species.

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