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Steve Waugh is unsackable now.
You don't sack sporting deities.
Australia's inspirational captain saved his side's blushes, and his own career, with one of the most stirring, defiant and significant knocks in cricket history.
He reckons he doesn't believe in fairytales, but he may have to change his mind after smashing a four off the last ball of the day against England to send a nation justifiably ga-ga and remove the axe which has been hovering over his 37-year-old neck.
Just how much his unbeaten hundred meant to him was evident when the normally phlegmatic Waugh punched the air, raised both arms aloft and was swept on a tide of emotion from the SCG.
It left him as only the third player in history to climb the Everest of 10,000 Test runs, after Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar.
It also elevated him alongside Sir Donald Bradman as joint holder of the Australian record of 29 Test centuries.
Many have said that if they wanted a player to bat for their lives, it would have to be the older of the Waugh twins and today he was batting for his own.
His superlative performance under intense pressure must guarantee him passage to the West Indies in April.
If so, he will also surpass Border's world record of 156 Test appearances.
Never had a stage been so perfectly set for Waugh's combative temperament.
The flinty fighter has shown time and again that he is at his best when his side is 3-50 rather than 3-200.
And so it was in the fifth Test on Friday.
Another full house of almost 42,000 gave him a standing ovation when he went out to bat just before tea.
His legion of fans roared with relief and approval when he reached a half-century for the 75th time.
They brought the house down when he passed 69 - the amount needed to top the 10,000 run mark.
And they went bananas when he completed a ton that will live in the memory of all who saw it.
Cometh the moment, cometh the man.
And there is no man in world cricket like this Ice Man.
Waugh, the most single-minded cricketer in the game, scarcely needs any help in the willpower department but it seemed as if every soul at the SCG was willing him to succeed.
Rarely has he looked quite so determined.
He was often blazing, always belligerent.
When he got behind the ball, he got everything there plus the kitchen sink.
And when he cut loose, he went for broke, smashing three consecutive fours off England's chief tormentor Andy Caddick and two off Matthew Hoggard.
Waugh was not alone in striking a blow for the game's elder statesmen.
Alec Stewart also batted up a storm and a standing ovation.
His sparkling 71 was the day's early highlight, helping England to put real pressure on Australia for the first time in a lopsided series.
The point is Stewart is older - yes, even older - than crusty old Steve Waugh.
He is just three months shy of the age that dares not speak its name - the fearful forty.
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they are good arent they...
