Michael Vaughan held back the tears - but only just - as he revealed the factors that contributed towards his decision to retire. On top of his own form and fitness, he did not want to hog a place in the Yorkshire side that would be better served by a younger player or to linger as a cloud over England's Ashes bid.

The former captain, who will now weigh up job offers, envisaged a situation where Australia won a Test match with Ravi Bopara falling for low scores in each innings when Vaughan himself had compiled a big score for his county. "The last thing that Ravi needs was for me to get a hundred and the media to build up my chances," he said.

Following the emotion of his press conference at Loughborough last August when he stepped down as England captain, Vaughan almost broke down again as he faced the cameras at Edgbaston. But he said that his latest decision was the easier of the two and admitted feeling relief that, after 17 years, his career was now closed.

He joked that his mind was made up when his three-year-old son Archie had knocked out his off stump in the back garden recently - although the Yorkshireman in Vaughan pointed out that the ball had deviated off a weed. Nobody asked him whether he walked or waited for his wife to give the decision.

"I wanted to give it one last effort to get into the Ashes squad," Vaughan said. "I have given it that shot, but have just not been playing well enough. Two weeks ago at Worcester I realised there were younger players around the Yorkshire team, and certainly England, who need to be given a chance to move the game forward."

He described the 2005 Ashes success as the pinnacle of his career but, despite being centrally contracted, had no qualms with his omission from the 16-man squad for the build-up this time. "I have not played well enough to justify being in it," he said. "For the Ashes it has to be the best players and I am not one of those."

Contrary to reports, Vaughan said that he, rather than Yorkshire, took the decision not to play in the Twenty20 Cup game against Derbyshire on Sunday which would have been his farewell. Although he has detected warmth from crowds wherever he has played this season, the prospect of a last round of appearances held little appeal.

He said: "I didn't want to be standing at mid-off at Scarborough or Headingley later in the summer wondering what the score was in the Test match, how England were going and who was scoring the runs. If you are going to play cricket you have to concentrate fully. Basically, I want to watch the Ashes."

Vaughan spent an hour on the phone to Andrew Strauss yesterday morning, perhaps grateful that he was not in the hot seat explaining Andrew Flintoff's latest disciplinary misdemeanour. "I leave with no regrets," Vaughan said. "I want to be remembered as a nice player on the eye to watch, and as someone who gave my all."