KEY POINTS:
Fairytale endings don't often happen. That's why they are called fairytales because to the best of my knowledge, fairies don't exist. So the enigmatic Nathan Astle pulls the plug on his 12-year international career in a remote location, during a scarcely populated press conference, in the middle of
a team and form slump. For most top players, that is the norm.
Heroic send-offs in front of 60,000 adoring fans, walking off the field with 100 to your name and leaving the team in better shape than when you joined is how every batsman wants to go out.
Very few do - hell, even the game's greatest batsman finished by just plain missing a straight one when on 0. Most get dropped, fail to regain fitness or get subtly told that tomorrow will be their last innings.
In Astle's case, he most probably just got fed up with the whole thing.
The conspiracy theorists and those who live to bring down others will say Astle was pushed and thus given the chance to go out with dignity. Some, who were calling for him to be dropped, may not want to accept his resignation because they feel cheated.
Whether John Bracewell was pushing Astle towards the gallows or not, it's my bet Astle could see the gallows and, at best, was just staying the same distance from them.
Playing for your place is never any fun but in your early days, you accept it because you know it's worth it. Later in life and when you've been as good as Astle, success is more like treading water.
Because of that, success doesn't offset cricket's inevitable failures satisfactorily enough. Even the thought of success at the World Cup would not be enough to motivate an older player out of cricket's doldrums. You can reach a point where your physical form turns for the better but your mental form remains in a slump.
Astle may have been close to non-selection but I totally accept his reason for retirement. A loss of form at 35 is not fun; neither is public criticism, nor the fear of leaving with a sour taste in the mouths of others and, worse, your own.
Perhaps some would say that, with the trouble besetting the New Zealand top order and with the pinnacle of the cricketing calendar just around the corner, Astle had a job to do. Sometimes jobs aren't fun but that is the reason you have to respect the age-old retirement comment of 'I didn't want to let down my team-mates.'
But the satisfaction achieved by success has another by-product - the motivation to scrap hard under pressure reduces. The realisation of this sneaks up fast and, I can tell you, when it hits, it hits hard.
Astle would have known, deep down, his matchwinning days were on the decline and even less likely in tight situations. So persevering would only lead to letting himself down.
When you are a matchwinner, letting yourself down is letting your team down. Sometimes to quit is to be a matchwinner.