Warne: Aussies will keep winning

SHANE WARNE is backing Australia to continue their relentless domination of world cricket — even after more than a third of their star-studded line-up has retired.

Australia’s 10-wicket triumph over England in the final Test at the SCG wrapped up the first Ashes whitewash since 1920-21 and completed their 12th successive Test victory.

By the time they return to Test cricket next October, Australia will have to resume their winning run without the services of the irrepressible Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer — who all retired following yesterday’s Test — while Damien Martyn quit several weeks ago.

It is an awesome task for Australia’s selectors and similar to the one they faced in 1984 when Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee retired simultaneously and began a period of mediocre success.

But Warne, who finished an incredible career with his final delivery in Test cricket being hit for four by Steve Harmison, believes Australia are so far ahead of the chasing pack, they will continue to be successful.

“At the moment I think we’re a long way ahead of the next best side,” said Warne. “England are rated the second best side and to win 5-0, you can’t be any more comprehensive than that.

“There is a good gap between Australia and the next best side. That’s not being arrogant, that’s just facts.

“I think they’ll be able to replace us three guys and I’m sure Australia will keep playing good cricket and keep winning.”

Michael Clarke, all-rounder Andrew Symonds and man-of-the-series Stuart Clark have already forced their way into Australia’s line-up this summer while Phil Jacques is strongly tipped to replace Langer as Hayden’s opening partner.

There are other exciting youngsters competing for places, including Adam Voges who was in the squad for the third Test at Perth, while on the fringes they have young seamers like Shaun Tait and left-armer Mitchell Johnson.

“It’s a step into the unknown, but I have a good feeling about the young players at the moment,” enthused captain Ricky Ponting. “We’ve got Voges and he will come up.

“We’ve also got Tait and Mitchell Johnson and I’m excited about that. They will bring a bit of edge and excitement, but we’ve still got a nucleus of the side and I can still see us being a very dominant team.

“I had a word with Michael Clarke on the way around the ground about the next era and what we’ve got coming up. How for the next few years hopefully he and I and (Michael) Hussey will the ones winning games for our country and I’m looking forward to that period.

“I told Clarkey to sit back and have a look around. We probably haven’t made a big deal about the 5-0 result. We spoke about it leading into the game but once it started it was about getting business done.

“Even after the game we probably haven’t thought about how big an achievement this is. It has been 86 years since it happened and it is a moment we should savour and that is what I was telling him, soak it up and make sure the next time we play in an Ashes series we give it our best shot.”

Ponting, like most of the other Australians inside the SCG yesterday, admitted to getting emotional at the thought of not playing again alongside Langer, Warne and McGrath.

He added: “It wasn’t so much about the 5-0 it was more about the occasion with the guys finishing. I shed a bit of a tear out on the ground and had to stay away from as many photographers and cameramen as I could.”