Shane Warne has announced his retirement from the game, effective after the fifth and final 3 mobile Ashes Test at the SCG, and also revealed had Australia won the Ashes in 2005 he would have pulled stumps then.

"It's been on my chest for a little while. I probably would have retired at the end of the 2005 Ashes series if we had have won. But it wasn't to be."

But now Warne will end his Test career at the same venue where his remarkable journey in international cricket began 14 years ago against India.

The leading Test wicket-taker of all-time, who requires just one English scalp in his home Test at the MCG which starts on Boxing Day to be the first player to reach the 700-mark, confirmed the reasons behind his decision to retire at a packed media conference at the MCG on Thursday.

The Victorian said 'the time is now' on the decision to end his career for Australia, Victoria and St Kilda - though he will fulfil his two-year contract with English county side Hampshire.

It has been a career littered with moments of absolute sporting genius on the field, and controversy off it.

"It's been unbelievable. My ride in international cricket has been phenomenal and I don't think I could have written my script any better," said Warne.

"I thought I'd be sad and a lot of people have said you'll know when your time's up, you'll know when the time's right and I sort of doubted that, I didn't really understand what they meant. And I sit in here in front of you today and I know exactly what they mean."

"The script leading up these last two Test matches - I'm going to retire at the end of the Sydney test match - the reason for doing it that way, I wasn't going to do anything ahead of the team, the team always came first and once the urn was back, it was going to be time to announce my retirement."

"If that had to wait until the end of the Sydney test match, then it would've been then. But as it's worked out, the script's been written, 3-0, we got the urn back in Perth, the opportunity to play out here at the MCG in front of my family and friends who I've grown up with and spent a lot of time with, and then in Sydney where it all started."

"I still feel I'm bowling well enough to keep playing. It's about knowing the right time, and I like to go out on top, I think I'm leaving on my terms, I like to think I've earned that right to go out on my terms."

Warne's off-field dramas pale into insignificance when stacked up against his stunning statistical record at the highest level.

The 37-year-old has taken 699 wickets in 143 Tests, saving his best for England against which he has claimed 186 wickets - including the 'ball of the century' against Mike Gatting in 1993 with his first Ashes delivery and 40 series wickets in 2005.

His best figures came against England in Brisbane in 1994, when he took 8-71 in the first Test of the series.

Warne has taken 10 wickets in a match on 10 occasions which is the second-most in history behind Sri Lankan rival Muttiah Muralitharan (19), while he has claimed five victims in an innings 36 times.

Only Muralitharan (57) is ahead of Warne and New Zealand legend Richard Hadlee (also on 36) in the five wickets in an innings category.

A handy batsman, Warne will potentially now only have four innings to make the Test hundred he has always craved - his 99 against New Zealand in Perth in 2001/02 the closest he came to the milestone.

On that occasion, Warne - who has scored the most runs without making a ton (3043) - attempted to bring up what would have been his maiden century with a pull shot off Daniel Vettori, but succeeded only in holing out in the deep to Mark Richardson.

In a cricketing sense, Warne was the pioneer of a revolutionary ball called the 'flipper' which appeared out of the hand to be a regulation leg-spinner, however, the ball would keep low and straight after pitching - often clean-bowling or trapping the best batsmen in the world lbw.

Warne's ability to execute the delivery diminished somewhat after shoulder surgery in 1998, but he could always rely on his trademark massive-turning 'leggies' which would drift right before turning copious amounts off the pitch.

Having retired from the one-day format of the game in 2003, Warne has continued to dominate the Test arena. His 96 wickets in 2005 set a new world record mark for a calendar year.