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[Vic Nicholas]

His record is quite remarkable for one considered by Poms to be so (No Swearing Please).

Has retired with a bowling average of 28, something English "Greatest of All Time" bowlers Harmison, Flintoff and ultimately, Anderson, haven't/won't manage to better.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/941849.html

With some consistency and pitches in Australia livelier (instead of being deadened for Indian Broadcasting dollars), would likely have finished with an average closer to 25.

Still, his strike rate is remarkable.

[i12breakfree]

http://youtu.be/ngvWMnVqCpQ

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[sanredrose]

Good luck Mitch .. IPL/BBL 2016 awaits your arrival ...

[Buzz]

This is a magnificent piece of writing

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/941979.html

[Vic Nicholas]

This is a magnificent piece of writing

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/941979.html

That article encapsulates Johnson.

A small town boy from Northern Queensland with zero self esteem due to his parents separation and his own non-descript personality.

When Johnson tried sledging (at the behest of retired legends)...it was hilarious, for he did not look, nor sound menacing. He is too much of a nice guy to be scary. I well remember in the 2009 Ashes Pieterson smiling when Mitch attempted a stare down.You could imagine KP saying, "what the hell is this Mitch?"

It was when Johnson got it all right, that he was at his scariest...and he didn't need to sledge or do anything. The ball was doing the talking.

It would be unfair to say that Johnson is an unfulfilled talent, because that would be selling him short of the incredible achievements that he did accomplish...only the second man to win ICC International Cricket of the Year TWICE. More Man of the Match awards than any other player over the course of the time frame of his career. The best strike-rate of any Australian bowler in the history of the game...these are stats that even I didn't know about.

Johnson will largely disappear from view now that he has retired. He will not end up in commentary or the media...he simply is a man of too few words, but like a North Queensland cyclone, he devastated all in his path on his day.

Unfulfilled talent? More like we only got to to see the tip of a rather large iceberg of talent that was only partially exposed.

[tim2000s]

I, for one, am sad to see him go. His sheer pace and left arm line made life very difficult for batsmen on the days that he operated to his full capacity. Much as we jeered him and made up songs about him, he fell right in the vein of McGrath and Warne, in that we knew he deserved it and we needed to do something to help our team overcome him. Depending on which series, you saw the varied results.

When he was on song, watching him bowl was exciting, as it should be for any fast bowler. Even when he was bowling at our side. As proper, rip roaring, lip curling, snarling fast bowlers retire (even if he was just a nice guy) the cricket world becomes a poorer place. Oh that we saw more where he came from!

[northernboy1987]

This is a magnificent piece of writing

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/941979.html

Great read that, thanks for sharing Buzz.

[Gelds]

I always enjoyed watching Mitch bowl, even at his devastating best in the 13/14 Ashes! Genuinely exciting  to watch and, I imagine, frightening to face but the thing that set him apart for me was the determination he showed to bounce back from his mid-career struggles.

[ProCricketer1982]

Nothing better in the game than a fast bowler bowling well and over 90mph.. Not like our powder puff stuff zz