Before Damien Fleming got pain, there were some others of his generation's swing bowlers who could frequently bowl wicket-taking delivery just like he did. This shoulder injuries make him disabled and restricted his cricket international career which once started with a hat trick Test, to 88 ODIs and 20 Tests. It might seem premature of taking quit in playing just at 32, but he had forseen the future of his cricket life in coaching. In first few years after retirement he spent in some of  the Cricket academy of next generation before becoming a Bowlogist and starting commentary.

You were just 32, couldn't you come back when you were agonizing over for 18 months!

"Now, people debut at 32. Even back then in 2003, it was certainly looked at as being old. And I only played a couple of games for SA. My shoulder never got right. I don't know why. I don't think we did the right operation. But there was one spell against WA; Boony (David Boon) was an Australian selector at the time and he just went 'I've got some good news for the other selectors. The swing's back'. Even then I felt I'm not that far away really (from a recall to the national team).

But at SA, we had a good year for young players. This is the year that Shaun Tait, Mark Cosgrove, Callum Ferguson came through. We had a young bloke called Mark Cleary. I was actually even considering going to the SACA with a radical offer to captain the second XI in four-day cricket and play the one-dayers for the senior team. I thought with (Jason) Gillespie, (Paul) Rofe, Tait, (Mark) Harrity, I didn't want to take up a spot of a younger player. But I thought I could still play a leadership role."

So you gave up your cricket reluctantly?

"The biggest thing I found in retiring was as a competitive sportsman you are trained not to give up. You just keep trying. But when you retire, you actually are giving up, aren't you? I was excited about the role but to make the phone-call to retire was really tough because mentally you are giving up. I was a bit different to other people who are sacked without anything to fall back on. In my case, it wasn't a really sad time because I just saw my future. The biggest thing was if I'd gone into another industry, I would have found it harder. Being involved in cricket helped me divorce myself from the game. It helped me wean off the playing side of cricket."

You have just moved to Adelaide to play for South Australia in the finally retiring season.

"I was in South Australia and I'd just had a third shoulder reconstruction. I was really passionate about get into coaching. But at this stage I still had another year of contract with SA, so I was going to rehab, which I'd got really good at. I just played in between injuries in those last 3 years. And then I saw that Troy Cooley had gone to England. I saw that they'd advertised for the fast bowling coach position at the Academy (which was in Adelaide then). At that stage, I didn't know if I'd have a chance. Certainly, I was thinking about continuing to play because the Academy was very busy in the winter but not so much over the summer. I rang someone over at Cricket Australia and he was a bit funny over the phone because they'd just had a meeting and had thrown some names around and mine was one. He's thinking 'gee that leak was pretty quick' (laughs). But it wasn't a leak. I went through the process and accepted the role, but I was still adamant that I wanted to play. And they said no you can't have both and for me I thought the future is coaching."

Your last first-class game was like a perfect finish to the MCG, a kind of bittersweet homecoming?

"People ask me if I ever got down with all my injuries. But I was always very practical about it. Get injured, rehab, get injured, rehab almost since I was 23 for nearly 10 years. I would do 13 hours of gym, rehab and fitness just to get ready to train, forget playing. But it was what I had to do. Where I did mess up is at times when I tried to come back too early.

I remember talking to Brett Lee about this when he came up to the Academy in Brisbane, mainly working on no-balls. He'd just had a Test against India where he went for over 200 runs and John Buchanan sent him up. We were working on his run-up mainly, but I told him just because you rehab well, you don't deserve anything. But at times I remember thinking during my time, I've had bad luck. I've been training really hard, and I deserve rewards straight away. But cricket doesn't work that way.

Even my last game at the G, I knew I shouldn't have played. My shoulder was cooked. It was just the usual. Have an operation, rehab and come back. I had my first shoulder reconstruction in 1995 after the Windies tour. It took me about 18 months to feel half-normal again. Because it had tightened up so much. And here I thought I'll be 34 before it feels right."

What went in your thinking when that hit pillow in that night? Relief?

"There's no doubt these injuries were having an effect on me mentally. I felt like I rehabbed well but the shoulder didn't get right. There was an incident two years before where I slipped a disc in my neck while sleeping. Rocked up the game but I can't play. Went to Warwickshire, flew over, and similar thing, I've felt this before, bowled 18 balls and had to fly home. So I just felt like I was continually letting people down really. Not like it was anyone's fault. I was just getting these bizarre injuries. So, there had to be a certain amount of relief (that night) that I am not going to get injured again and let people down again."