KEY POINTS:
Shane Warne's decision to retire was a bold call, but a good one.
There is nothing more he can achieve in the game. From now on, anything else would have been about personal gratification and - think what you like about Warne - he's always been a tremendous
team player.
When you've revolutionised the game to the extent he has and reminded fans how leg spin bowling can be just as devastating as outstanding fast bowling, and been the larger-than-life character he has been for almost 15 years, there comes a time when you can do no more.
Remember, spin was dead when Warne came along in the early 1990s. The West Indies had changed the face of cricket with their relentless four-pronged speed attack.
Put simply, he changed the way the game is played and showed kids you don't need to charge in from 20 metres and fling the ball down as fast as you can to succeed.
Think of other spinners around the globe - the likes of Pakistan's Danish Kaneria, India's Anil Kumble, our own Daniel Vettori, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan, and even Warne's fellow Aussie Stuart MacGill - who would walk into most other test teams. They all followed the blond Victorian.
Warne has never been motivated by individual milestones. I'm sure the 700th wicket he took in his back yard, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, this week was, in his mind, all well and good and a nice number to reach. But that's it.
I'm slightly surprised he chose to step down. After all, he doesn't appear to have lots of other things in his life he needs to rush off to do.
He could have gone on for another Ashes campaign, but he would have been doing it for himself and that's never been his way.
When Australia lost the Ashes last year in England, that severely stung their leading players, who'd never known defeat to the Poms.
I know that getting the Ashes back was a hugely motivating factor for the likes of Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and Warne, the old hands in the side.
So many sportsmen and women stay on past their peak. They can't recognise when the time is right, so Warne deserves congratulations on that score.
How did we get on with him down the years? Pretty well.
The best example I can offer is when we got him out for 99 in Perth, caught in the outfield a run short of what would have been his only test hundred. The feeling in the dressing room was that while we were delighted to have got him out, it was sad for Warne missing a milestone.
He was great to play against. Very competitive out in the middle, but pretty fair with it.
The guys all liked him, which says something about him as a person, considering the damage he did to our batting lineups over the years.
* I've always liked the look of Ross Taylor. I'm delighted he's got his maiden ODI hundred behind him, and that he got it at a decent run-a-ball clip in Napier on Thursday.
The next few games will be interesting for him. When a batsman gets a breakthrough century early in his career it generally guarantees a decent run in the side. But he needs to capitalise on that and score runs consistently.
Coming with the World Cup around the corner, it also adds an extra dimension for the national selectors.
It was a fair belting in Napier and although you can argue that the loss to Sri Lanka wasn't a severe hiccup with the World Cup in mind, NZ should be winning their series at home.
The second test defeat in Wellington was a shocker and it's important they regain the initiative in Queenstown tomorrow.
And as for captain Stephen Fleming having a couple of games off, no dramas in my mind. After all, it's opened another spot for a batsman to put his hand up and given Vettori another chance at leadership, and Fleming's going to have a full-on workload through to the World Cup. A few days break won't hurt him or the team.
