It is a great shame that injury ruled Graeme Hick out of a farewell first class appearance against Middlesex at Kidderminster. His sore elbow is expected to also keep him out of Worcestershire's Pro40 play-off with Glamorgan and it is the inability to help his teammates retain division one status that will rankle with the Pears legend, not the missed opportunity for a high profile send-off.

Hick apparently needed persuading to announce his retirement before the season's close and it is easy to see why a man who shuns the limelight would prefer a low-key announcement in the winter. I for one am glad that he receives the deserved accolades during the season, when cricket is still on the back pages.

There are of course those who choose to dwell on his under-performing for England and those who patronise by referring to the unfair pressure, the exceptional attacks he face early in his career and the shoddy selection treatment meted out by the England management.

We should concentrate on the positives: the match-winning 83 against South Africa in the 1992 world cup semi final; the 409 one day runs in four innings against Sri Lanka and Australia in 1999; the Test 178 in Mumbai in 1993 when no one else reached 50.

These performances indeed hint at what he could have achieved in national colours, but we should not sigh at 'what could have been', as Hick himself is well past this stage. If he is content, then so should we be.

Hick is easy to like as a player. I never wanted anyone to succeed for England as much, before or since, and the platitudes offered by former colleagues seem more genuine than usual.

His legacy will be held more fondly held than those of other recent domestic run machines. He doesn't possess the selfishness of Boycott, the rebel tour controversies of Gooch or the burning bitterness of Ramprakash.

Hick is a cricket legend and his fallibility does not reduce his standing in my eyes nor in those of the New Road faithful. Anyone who finishes his career in the first class run scoring charts a place ahead of Len Hutton can be seen in no other way.