Get over it. If Aussie coach Darren Lehmann wanted to watch a Premier League soccer game and tweeted for tickets it’s not the end of the world. And it is mutually exclusive from the battering his team received by a not so high profile England side who took away the Ashes like they were stealing candy from a baby.

What was he supposed to do? Leap out of the hotel window that being the honorable thing to do or go shopping for some sackcloth and ‘ashes’ (the ‘a’; word again)? Yes, it was mind bruising and it all fell apart but there will always be another day at the office and it won’t start with the coffee machine not working.

He’s hurting and he needs to recharge his batteries. Haven’t you ever had a lousy patch where nothing went right?

As for skipper Michael Clarke, any person who has gone on the field of sport and tasted bitter defeat will empathize with his state of mind. Failure has no friends, only critics. As they bay for his blood one can ask when is the right time to quit

At the top of your game? Just as you reach the summit and have nowhere else to go? As you leave the peak, seeing as how it is all downhill from then on? After a big victory? There is no accurate answer. Anonymity is not easy after the glare of fame and it is natural to hang in there. It’s not just about being a celebrity though. The idea of not competing at such a young age is difficult to handle. It has been your raison d’etre and it is both nerve-wracking and depressing to look at the void ahead.

Michael might be ruing the fact that after leading his country to win the World Cup just a few short months ago he could have gone out on an open bus and a ticker tape parade. Now, he has to skulk past Immigration at the airport and duck the media’s feeding frenzy and his resignation and surrender become abject.

Was that the right time when they were singing his praises? You might say yes with the help of dollops of hindsight. What better moment than to go out on a high? But there was gravel in the gut then and the Aussies were invincible and Michael was the Man. No one foresaw that the ball of wool would unravel so dramatically. Certainly not the media who were all gung ho about an Ashes series then and now he is being shoved out.

Not everyone is an Annika Sorenstam who quit golf when she had another good five years of play in her or tennis ace Justine Henin who left the circuit as World No. 1. I remember the legend of Rocky Marciano (49-0) who hung ‘em up at 32 and didn’t look back. Sangakarra, Dravid, even Michael Jordan walked away and Sachin Tendulkar just about nudged the fine line. Sometimes it is tragedy that curtails a career, like baseball icon Lou Gehrig who sent a whole country into mourning in 1939 when he developed ALS and had to quit at the age of 36.

Truth be told none of us know when to call it a day. Not at work, not in our business, nor our various relationships, certainly not in sport. It has been said that genius lies in knowing when to stop. Well, all too often we can’t read the sign. It’s in a different language.

Certain media critics have labelled the deadly flaw as Aussie arrogance. I’d buy that argument if it was a one off match. But this chariot lost a wheel and became unglued, period. Arrogance disappears the moment there is comeuppance and that awakening came when they lost the first test. Even the argument that there was too much slack to pull in doesn’t hold water. After going down in the third Test they had enough time to establish a mindset for winning.

Go watch the soccer, Darren and walk tall, Michael, you guys have paid your dues and then some.

The English deserve their victory but they know that such a wide gap isn’t going to happen again anytime soon.