So Steve Waugh may play on into his 40th year?

Followers of Australian cricket have become well acquainted with Waugh's unrivalled resilience over the years. But now it seems they may have to prepare to acknowledge new yardsticks for endurance too.

If the current national captain honours his surge of interest in another tour of the subcontinent in 2004, it means he will be well past his 39th birthday at the very least before he cedes to the prospect of retirement.

In signalling his desire to reverse Australia's unhappy set of results in India in recent decades, Waugh is thus theoretically poised to alter the record books in at least one other form too.

Though it was not uncommon for Australian Test players of the 1920s and 1930s to play on into the fifth decade of their lives, longevity of that kind has generally not extended to include their modern counterparts. Any such move by one of the country's current practitioners would therefore represent a distinct break with recent practice.

Among the last 265 men to have played Test cricket for Australia, only Bob Simpson had reached his 40th birthday by the time that he played his final match. And even that development was fashioned by a unique combination of circumstances. Simpson had last seen Test action ten years earlier when he made a shock return to lead Australia in the wake of the crisis caused by the advent of World Series Cricket in 1977-78.

In recent times, the mid-30s have instead qualified as the general entry point for passage to cricket's version of a retirement home. Among the recent greats to have pulled the pin on their Test careers while they still remained fixtures in the national team, Allan Border was the oldest - at 38. Mark Taylor, David Boon, Ian Healy and Craig McDermott were all well short even of that mark, and eminent predecessors like Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee were similarly not much closer to their 40th birthdays than their 30th when they played for the last time.

At 50 years and 327 days, Bert Ironmonger was the oldest player ever to take the field for Australia in a Test match. Off spinner Don Blackie was just shy of his 47th birthday when he graced a Test field for the last time; celebrated leg spinner Clarrie Grimmett was in his 45th year; and wicketkeeper Sammy Carter and batsman Warren Bardsley were each about to celebrate their 44th birthdays.

But none of these men played Test cricket beyond the 1936-37 season.

In all, only 14 players in Australian Test cricket history have played on after reaching the age of 40.

It's almost possible to visualise that famous glint in Waugh's eye as one contemplates the thought that he is poised to defy conventional wisdom yet again.

Whatever the case, any extension of his career beyond the previously speculated end point of the 2003 World Cup certainly represents one way of offsetting the suggestion that there are very few young players ready to replace him in the national team over the next few seasons.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd