By Scott Heinrich BBC Sport in Sydney

Langer was a wonderful opening batsman; Warne and McGrath were two once-in-a-lifetime players who implausibly happened upon cricket at the same time Scott Heinrich

Sport is not meant to be this compliant. It has no concept of emotion, no obligation to bend to the wishes of its servants.

But on Friday, 5 January, 2007, the dream ending to three illustrious careers became reality when Australia ravaged England to seal only the second Ashes whitewash in history.

Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer, like all great performers, left the SCG audience breathless and wanting more when the curtain dropped.

As a last act, it was impossible to beat.

Fate has been less kind to others ending their careers, but cricketers like these have set themselves apart by creating their own destinies.

The passing of time, even generations, is usually required to determine how history will judge a sportsman. Not so Warne and McGrath.

It would be a major shock if even one member of the near-capacity crowd was not aware they were witnessing the farewell of two of the greatest cricketers the world has produced.

It is a measure of their magnificence that Langer, with 23 Test centuries and an average in excess of 45, is not in the same bracket.

Langer was a wonderful opening batsman and an uncompromising competitor, but Warne and McGrath were two once-in-a-lifetime players who implausibly happened upon cricket at the same time.

Sydney thought it had seen a farewell of the ages when Steve Waugh was chaired off the ground three summers ago.

All serious before the final Test

Australia thought it would never again see the likes of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh when they retired together after the SCG Test of 1984.

It gives Australian fans hope for the future that they are saying the same thing again 23 years later, but it is fantasy to think their ilk will come again in our lifetime.

This is something else altogether and there was something very final about this changing of the guard.

For local boy McGrath, it was the parting shot to end all parting shots.

His routine, and often ridiculed, prediction of "5-0" before every Ashes series finally came true.

It vindicated his belief that a mammoth gap has always believed existed between the two teams. After his injury-restricted role in last year's loss, a clean sweep was something he, and the rest of the team, wanted desperately in the record books.

For Warne, it ended where it all started 15 years ago against India.

Celebrating with some of their combined brood after Sydney win

That time has been filled with the glory and the pain, the trials and tribulations of 50 cricketers combined.

He finishes as the leading Test wicket-taker of all-time, the leading Ashes wicket-taker, the third most-capped player in Test history and the player to score the most runs without a Test century.

But how he tried to rectify that in Australia's first innings. He looked on course for a hundred but had to make do with 71.

When McGrath walked to the middle near the end of the innings, the applause was deafening. He took the walk slowly, making sure he recognised the fans from both sides expressing their gratitude for a career of excellence.

When the two met in the middle, Warne uttered the rallying words, "C'mon Pidge".

Had Warne not given his wicket away, it would have taken the brave or the uninitiated to bet against McGrath holding up an end long enough for his friend to reach his milestone.

Langer, who appeared the most emotionally torn of the three retirees when making the big announcement, dropped three catches at third slip.

They were chances he would normally have pocketed, but it was a nod to the enormity of the occasion, and his utter involvement in it, that they went begging.

Fittingly, he was at the crease when the winning runs were scored, maintaining Australia's flawless Test record against England when he, Warne and McGrath have played together.

Elsewhere on the outfield, coach John Buchanan, also at the end of his Test career with Australia, was consoling a tearful Matthew Hayden.

They say it's always more painful for the ones you leave behind.