I was relieved to get some more rest when we won the toss and batted in the second Test at Lord’s. It turned out to a long rest too as we declared on 4-632 on Saturday morning.

A lot of people didn’t understand why we batted so long, but at tea on the Friday we were about to declare when we found Craig McDermott on the floor of the shower.

He was curled up in the foetal position, really crook in the guts. He was rushed to hospital with a twisted bowel. He was on his way home and out of the series.

It meant you had the strange sight of me opening the bowling with Mark Waugh. I pounded in for 51 overs over the course of more than two days. Believe me, it was hard work. In the first innings I gave Goochie a short ball that he top-edged with a hook that Tim May took at fine leg. I also got Graeme Hick again, and Alec Stewart, as England posted just 205.

Allan Border enforced the follow-on and we had to take a deep breath and go again. I bowled 31 overs in the second innings, but didn’t get a wicket this time as the spinners shared them, though I did provide the throw for Atherton’s run out on 99. England were all out for 365 to lose by an innings and 62.

Sledging had always been a crucial part of my armoury. If you were facing me then you were the person I hated most in the whole world.

The extra workload wasn’t helping my knee, and I needed painkillers to get me through the day. I took two at the start, then two at lunch and two at tea. At the end of the day I was covered in ice, with bags strapped to my knees, shoulders, groin and back.

At the end of the tour I had surgery on my knee where they found flakes of bone floating around, which when they became caught would cause my knee to lock.

I was in so much pain because bone had been rubbing against bone as I had worn through my cartilage, leaving a patch of dead bone the size of a 50 cent piece.

After drawing the third Test at Trent Bridge, there were doubts about whether I would be OK for the fourth Test at Headingley, but I put in the hours down in London, and was passed fit. I met up with the guys in Durham, but sat out the game to stay fresh.

15 PINTS OF LAGER

It was during this game Steve Waugh found my diet diary in the changing room and proceeded to read it out to the team. I had been employing my own personal dietician for the previous six months and she had asked me to write down what I ate.

Steve found an entry from earlier in the tour when I had visited Planet Hollywood in London when I had a bowl of nachos, a dozen chicken wings, a chicken burger, half a chicken burger that someone couldn’t finish, a chocolate dessert, 15 pints of lager, and two cocktails. It took me almost a day to write it all down.

Once again it was great to see us bat first for a long time because I really needed two more days in the shed. We declared on 653/4. The rest had done me good as I took Mark Lathwell, the first of my three wickets, in the first over of England’s reply to put them under pressure, and they slumped to 200 all out.

For the second Test running we bowled for back-to-back innings. It was tough, but I had to keep pushing myself. It was all worth it when we got them all out for 305 to win by an innings and 148 runs. The Ashes had been retained.

When I got Andy Caddick during England’s second innings at Headingley, he was the 200th Test wicket of my career. I was very proud to become the seventh member of a club that at that time contained Dennis Lillee, Richie Benaud, Graham McKenize, Jeff Thomson, Ray Lindwall and Clarrie Grimmett.

If I had finished my career with 199 wickets I don’t think I would have gained too much credibility, I would have just been a good bloke lucky enough to play for Australia. As soon as I had taken 200 wickets, people began to think, ‘This bloke really can play.’ It was a real badge of honour.

Though disappointed to lose the Ashes again, the English crowd at Headingley had given us a good reception. Throughout the series, the Pommie fans had got stuck in to me, but there is a great affection to the rivalry between the two countries. In pubs, the English fans are great, they want to have a beer and a chat, even if some of them did call me ‘Sumo’!

I had a bowl of nachos, a dozen chicken wings, a chicken burger, half a chicken burger that someone couldn’t finish, a chocolate dessert, 15 pints of lager, and two cocktails. It took me almost a day to write it all down.

Early on, Craig McDermott copped a bit of flak too, but it inspired one of the funniest moments of the tour. In the one-day game at Old Trafford Craig misfielded the ball down at fine leg and the crowd got on his back, every time he went near the fence they would shout ‘ee-aw, ee-aw’ like a donkey.

Craig thought it was because he had big ears. No one had realised it before, but we all looked around, and thought, ‘Shit, he has got massive ears!’

A few weeks later, we were playing Gloucester at Bristol. Steve Waugh and Tim May had been to a local fun shop and bought ten pairs of these enormous plastic ears.

 At one stage when Craig was bowling in the game he walked back to his mark and turned around to be faced with all his team-mates wearing these ears beneath our baggy green caps. Craig, the umpires, the batsmen, and all of us fell about laughing for several minutes.

The Ashes might have been safe, but I never considered ducking out of the fifth Test and having a rest. I knew this was my last Ashes tour.

For a couple of months I had been saying to Paul Reiffel, ‘Wait until Birmingham, the pitch will be so green.’ But when we got there it was bare! We couldn’t believe it.

‘What’s going on here?’ I asked the groundsman, who said all Test grounds had been told to roll out spinners’ wickets. ‘You’re kidding! You thought Tufnell and Such were better than May and Warne!’

This was proved during the Edgbaston Test when Warney and Tim May took 13 of England’s 20 wickets to go 4-0 up in the series.

Exhausted but happy, we made our way to The Oval for the final Test. During the five days there, I can remember Allan Border saying, ‘Are you OK? Because you look like rat shit.’ I was so tired, but I still took six wickets. It wasn’t enough though.

We wanted to go home with a 5-0 series win to surpass the 1989 side’s 4-0 effort, but lost by 161 runs. A lot of people said it didn’t really count for too much, but if you had been in the rooms that night the players were genuinely disappointed.

England brought in Devon Malcolm and Steve Watkin, and they took 12 wickets between them. Malcolm really made our batsmen dance. ‘Look at Devon, how come you can’t get the ball over hip high?’ Mark Taylor said to me.

‘Mate, we’ve played all summer, this bloke is in his first Test, he wants to win a place in the side, while I want to go home.’

JUST TWO MORE TESTS

It had been a long, hard tour, but I went home happy with 31 wickets, and the Ashes. But, sadly, I would appear in only two more Tests for Australia.

I had surgery on my right knee back home. The damage was a lot worse when they looked inside. It was as if I had broken my leg because I had to wait for the bone to regenerate. The surgeon said I wouldn’t be playing for at least four months. ‘What a relief,’ was my first reaction.

I missed the whole Australian summer, and made my comeback on the tour to South Africa in March 1994, but the second Test at Cape Town would prove to be my 53rd and final Test for Australia.

It has been said that my efforts on the 1993 Ashes tour probably brought my Test career to a premature end. I don’t agree. I was coming to the end anyway, the truth was my knees, ankles and back were all knackered.

It was only a matter of time before I had to make way for the younger blokes, and there was one by the name of Glenn McGrath coming through.

At 28, I thought I was going to play forever, but nearing 32, I was physically and mentally spent. Do I regret pushing myself so hard in England? Not for a second. Believe me, it was worth it.

This is an extract from the book The Ashes Match of My Life, edited by Sam Pilger and reproduced with permission.