E&OE...
To you Ricky and the other members of the team, on behalf of a very proud and grateful cricket-loving nation, thank you and congratulations for a remarkable performance, which capped a remarkable regaining of the Ashes only a few weeks earlier.
It was a stunning performance. I want to say to Ricky that performances like this are not achieved without great leadership, and your leadership of the team, in the West Indies, your leadership of the team over recent series, coupled with an amazingly consistent, personal performance with the bat, which has left your many admirers filled with admiration for the quality of your batting. So to you, in particular, I offer my congratulations.
I want to mention three other people, I know it's odious but it is deserving. I think we have to pay a very special tribute to that lanky bloke from Narromine, that wonderful Glenn McGrath who really has been an ornament to Australian cricket for many years. He is the greatest fast bowler of his generation, and many would say he ranks with the very greatest that the game has seen. But, your consistency Glenn, your capacity to fight back and your all-round sportsmanship over the years has been fantastic, and I wish you, and Janette joins me, in wishing you and Jane and your family, every best of happiness in the years ahead and we thank you very warmly for the wonderful contribution you have made to Australian cricket.
Anybody who looks back on that last match, that victory against Sri Lanka, they won't forget that magnificent performance by Adam Gilchrist, it was an astonishing innings that 149 and to Adam congratulations on that. The sight of you straining every last muscle to take that caught behind to add yet another wicket to Glenn's haul was very, very inspirational and I am delighted that Glenn was able to salvage that stump he took on the first occasion and get it back on the second occasion.
Finally, can I say to John Buchanan who has been a wonderful coach to the team over the years, it's not an easy job, very challenging one, as he will understand. John, thank you for your service to Australian cricket, and thank you for your service to Australian sport. I wish you well.
To all the other members of the team, we are so proud of you, we are very grateful for the performance that you put in, you behaved like true professionals, but most of all you've warmed the cockles of the hearts of those who see cricket as the greatest game that the world has ever seen, and a game at which Australia are unsurpassed as world champions.
[ends]