David Leggat: Jones and Cameron are two of our finest.

I'll bet this is the first time Lance Armstrong and Li Chunli have appeared in the same sentence.

But they are part of a week of sporting departures, which also includes two of New Zealand's most celebrated sportsmen, Stacey Jones and Pero Cameron.

All four are taking their leave - permanently or for other parts.

Take Lance Armstrong. The American has said he will put his bike away after this year's Tour de France, when he will attempt to win a seventh successive edition of cycling's most famous event.

Yet Armstrong will always be accompanied by an invisible asterisk. He's never failed a drugs test but the allegations have been frequent and damaging, and by too many former associates to be totally ignored.

In many American eyes it carries a similar stigma to the asterisk which accompanied New York Yankees batter Roger Maris when, in 1961, he toppled the legendary Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season.

Ruth did it in 154 games, but the Major League grew and Maris, through no fault of his own, had 162 games. The baseball commissioner at the time had been a ghost writer for the larger-than-life Babe and, with a bucket of malice, insisted on the asterisk, now rightly removed.

Armstrong, whose career moved to a new level and attracted a diverse battalion of admirers after he beat testicular cancer in the 1990s, deserves to be remembered as one of cycling's greats.

Winning a stage on the Tour de France is a big deal; winning a Tour the pinnacle of a rider's career. No one has won six. Why try for seven? "That desire to go out on top. That's a big deal to me. One final one, and then I stop," he said.

It's a world far removed from that Armstrong has dominated, but spare a thought this week for our finest table tennis player, Li Chunli, who has been forced to retire with a recurring shoulder injury.

It should be a trivial pursuit question: who won the most medals at the Manchester Commonwealth Games? Not a swimmer, or athlete or cyclist. The remarkable 43-year-old Chunli won the singles gold medal, plus a silver and two bronze.

The four-time Olympian was once world No 19. In Manchester she beat two Singapore players ranked No 9 and No 16 twice each. She was genuinely world class, but because table tennis is invariably small print on the New Zealand sporting page, she did not get the deserved recognition.

By contrast Stacey Jones and Pero Cameron are acknowledged as two of our finest in their sports.

But neither will be plying their trade for New Zealand teams. Jones is off to the new French club Union Treiziste Catalane in the British Super League; Cameron is looking for a job after being told he's not in the plans for the New Zealand Breakers next season.

Jones' departure from the New Zealand Warriors was odd in that the little halfback, the fans' favourite and the longest serving Warrior, would not answer questions at his press conference, sticking only to a short written script.

That was dumb, as it fuelled speculation he was shoved by the club. Then again, he's got a book coming out soon so maybe it's smart from a sales viewpoint.

Not everyone is comfortable in the limelight and Jones has never been at ease with that aspect of his position as pre-eminent Warrior.

Should the Warriors have bade him farewell then and there rather than see a prolonged five-month farewell? The answer to that will come in the quality of performances Jones puts in for the rest of his time.

As for Cameron, it seems only Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin can push the right buttons to have the big man firing. Frank Arsego didn't get it right at the Breakers last season.

Cameron rarely seems fully fit and there are plenty of stories about his fondness for fast food. Still, he has a magical touch with the ball.

He'll be missed, especially if he lobs up at an Australian franchise next season and does the business on the Breakers.