AFTER almost a year of agonising, Michael Vaughan has this weekend finally accepted that his career as an international cricketer is over. He will be bitterly disappointed that it has come to this — few England players backed themselves as positively as he did — but there was simply no more arguing with the situation. He had run out of time and his injured right knee made it impossible for him to field all day. England have moved on.

The determining factor in Vaughan’s decision to retire — which will soon become effective in all forms of cricket — was his omission last week from a 16-man training squad to prepare for the Ashes series that starts on Wednesday week, a squad that is this weekend on a bonding trip on the continent. This showed how far away he was from selection and all but ruled him out of the series. Unlike Steve Harmison and Ian Bell, like Vaughan centrally contracted to England, he did not even have the encouragement of being chosen for the England Lions team to face the Australians at Worcester this week. Had he been, he might have believed he was just one good performance away from a Test recall.

Ever since his tearful resignation as England captain last August, Vaughan has talked of returning to the Test side. He only turned 34 last October; there was time, in theory, for a couple of more years. But the runs he promised were just around the corner never came, despite his insistence that his appetite and ability remained undiminished.

The England Lions tour of India during the winter, which he was on, was ruined by the terrorist attacks on Mumbai and in truth his scores for Yorkshire this season were those of a run-of-the-mill county pro. But for the name, and the CV, he would never have got a name-check in a selection meeting.

Vaughan was far closer to an England recall in the minds of the media, who liked the idea of the Ashes -winning captain returning for another stab at the enemy. If his exclusion from the Ashes 16 was one reason behind Vaughan’s decision, another was the emergence of Ravi Bopara, now settled at number three, Vaughan’s favoured position.Three centuries in three Tests means Bopara is probably a fixture for the summer and with England seemingly set on picking only five specialist batsmen — during Vaughan’s dying days in the side there were usually six — the scope for a comeback are slim going on non-existent, even if Vaughan did start producing hundreds for Yorkshire.

This will be seen as a decision made for the good of the team as it goes into the biggest series of all. Now, even if England start losing and changes in personnel are contemplated, Vaughan has removed what was becoming an unhelpful and distracting debate: would it be time for England’s former captain to be recalled? Quite a few had already concluded the answer was always going to be no. Now Vaughan has agrees.

With this messy period at an end, tributes can be paid to Vaughan’s career. He must rank as one of this country’s finest captains, leading England to an unprecedented level of success in 2004-05, winning six series in a row including a first win in South Africa for 40 years and a first win over Australia in 19 years. He won 26 of his 51 Tests in charge, more than any other England captain. As a batsman he will go down as among the finest, and he was unfazed by any bowling.

In the end, Vaughan’s good timing returned with his decision to retire.